Delicate
by Sangha
Summary: COMPLETE Pairings:Yugi-Rebecca;Rebecca-Mokuba;Mokuba-Serenity;Serenity-Seto;Seto-Tea;Tea-Yugi.Quite a lot but Kaiba's always my main character.It's like some soap opera and it all begins when Mokuba announces to his brother who his new girlfriend is.
1. Mokuba's New Girlfriend

**Delicate** by Sangha

I really hope this works out in the end because I like the plot in my mind…I've made a start so far.

Pairings: SetoxTea; TeaxYugi; YugixRebecca; RebeccaxMokuba; MokubaxSerenity; SerenityxSeto

* * *

**Chapter 1 – Mokuba's New Girlfriend**

Winter.

Seto didn't like winter that much, after all these hectic weeks around Christmas which were fortunately finally over, it was almost March and still, snow was lying on the streets of Domino. People didn't like going outside and his amusement park stayed closed. At least Kaibaland was booming in times like these when the arenas were full of people who didn't know what to spend their time with else. He had, as usual, lots of work to be done and was sitting in his home office with his laptop and a cup of tea.

It was already late evening when Seto saw from out of his window that Mokuba's red sports car was appearing at the Kaiba ground. Sure enough, the tall brown haired man heard footsteps approaching his office.

"Knock, knock." Mokuba grinned when he entered the office of his older brother. "Hey Seto! It's too late for work, don't you know?"

"Funny, I always thought it'd be too late driving around Domino." Seto smirked. "But I'm glad you're home. There's a technical problem in Arena Five and I haven't had the time to look after it-"

"No probs, big bro. I'll see after that tomorrow." Mokuba smiled sweetly, flopping back his long ebony hair. "I've got to tell you something, at first."

A mischievous grin appeared on the younger Kaiba's handsome face. Indeed, now that Mokuba was almost twenty years old, he had features which were adored by hundreds of girls, plus he was almost as tall as his brother. The once small kid loved fashion and clad himself most of the time in all kinds of different brands, as long as they appeared to be cool in his social circles.

"Let me guess, you met a girl." Seto had to suppress his bored smile.

Mokuba always met girls and told Seto about it. At first it was quite funny and Seto being the proud brother thought of it as amusing but after almost three years the same old stories, Seto couldn't hear it anymore. Still, he could never tell Mokuba that. The kid had too many hormones, the elder thought to himself but knew deep inside, that he himself probably had just too few.

"How did you know?" The raven haired man almost shrieked. "Anyway, this time it's something else. I think I finally found the one girl I want to be with for the rest of my life." Dreamily he rolled his eyes in the air and sank down further in the chair he had chosen before to sit on.

"You! The rest of your life? I need to see that before I believe it." Seto smirked.

"No, I mean it." The younger answered quite serious which alarmed the older just a little bit more than usual. "It's not just some random girl from high school or college this time. She's a woman and a pretty one, too."

"They've been all pretty ones." Dry reply.

"She's intelligent and stands up for her opinions. She's not over styled and but classical I'd even say. Beautiful from her origin features, not through make up and weird hairdos. Her figure, Seto! You should see her figure! She's small but well portioned, if you know what I mean!" He wriggled his eyebrows funnily which resulted in Seto almost smiling. "She's dressed discretely and she's really lovely. She respects me and looks up to me. What more could I ever want?"

"True." Seto thought for a moment. In a way Mokuba had described Seto's perfect match. That's how he wished a woman would be to find for him. "I admit, it really does sound acceptable. So tell, who is the great goddess who's going to spend her life with you nagging freak?"

"Thanks bro." Mokuba smiled lazily. "Actually, you know her. Not very well, but you've seen her before."

Seto raised his eyebrows. "Is this a quiz or what? Tell me, who is it."

"Serenity Wheeler."

That said Seto stared at his brother like in trance. He felt like when he had been hallucinating on seeing old Egypt cities years ago but this time it was different. His thoughts didn't concern playing cards, but a certain auburn haired girl.

"Seto?"

The man with the chestnut hair blinked and narrowed his eyes, concentrating on his brother. He didn't know why he hadn't just made a dismissive comment about her but his first mind crossing thought was to find excuses for Mokuba not to be with her.

"Isn't she older than you are?" Great question to start with, Seto simply guessed.

"Yes, but only three years. What are three years Seto? So she is twenty-two now, who cares in another twenty years?" Mokuba shrugged. "She went to University in America, did you know that? She just came back with an A diploma. Great, isn't it?"

"Hm." Seto murmured mindlessly.

"We met in Rainmen's lately and wow, you should see how she has changed. She's even more beautiful than she was before. You should have seen Taylor… hehe… Serenity fell for me the moment she saw me, I swear to god above!"

Seto swallowed hard.

"What about Rebecca? Already over her?" Again a rather stupid question but Seto's mind was confused enough and therefore glad for any sentence he was able to form in his mind at all.

"Rebecca was just a crush I've had way too long."

"Three years." He had to voice out how long Mokuba had been into the blond girl.

"I know and I tell you, three years too long. Serenity's the right one for me, believe me. I know you don't like Wheelers pretty much but she's nothing like Joey. You'll see. I'm going to introduce her to you officially and you'll love her."

That was just the point. Mokuba had no clue how close he was to the truth. He shot up suddenly up and ran to the door, opening the heavy wooden wing. Turning around, his gaze met once more the one of his brother.

"Are you at home tonight?"

"Why?" Seto was most of the nights at home, not like a certain brother he had.

"Serenity's coming over later and-"

"I'm afraid I won't be here by then." Seto stated.

"It's past ten." Mokuba countered, knowing how rarely his older brother went out late.

"It's Friday and I'm going for a drink." Seto replied sternly.

Mokuba just raised an eyebrow. "Okay." The word was said quite suspicious but nevertheless, he left the room with a smile. "Have fun then."

Seto didn't reply. Waiting until the door was closed by his brother again, he drew in a heavy breath. Why did it have to be Serenity Wheeler in the name of hell! Feeling quite awkward he leant back in his chair. He felt like a fool lying to his brother about going out but one thing was for sure, now he would have to go. But the other side was, it may be the best anyway. A night out might take off his mind.

(A/N: Okay, this had been quite an awful lot of Kaiba but that will change in the next chapters. I write mostly only Kaiba fics, so no wonder after all. And, the chapter has been short but the following chapter will be longer. I'm used to change chapters with change of scenes – I think movie!)


	2. One Wild Night With A Sad Sad Smile

**Delicate** by Sangha

* * *

Chapter two is ready - remember that English is not my original language, so please accept the (few) mistakes I may have made. I am German, after all... Thanks for the review so far, I'm glad you like it.**

* * *

****Chapter 2 – One Wild Night (With A Sad Sad Smile)**

The only acceptable place to go to was a club called Rainmen's. It wasn't a big club like those who all kinds of weird teenagers were hanging out but it wasn't small like a village pub either. Mostly duelists chose this place to hang around as well as Yugi and his clique but there was also for Kaiba indeed no other place that would be acceptable in any way.

Seto walked in the club and steered immediately to the bar. Ordering himself a drink his mind once more drifted to the talk with his brother. He was with Serenity Wheeler – the one and only girl Seto had ever had a crush on. Indeed no one knew and he himself has always denied his own feelings towards the girl but fact was, she had had an affection to him he could never explain. They had both been teenagers, the girl had been very young compared to Seto, and how important could a simple teenager crush possibly be? So he had chosen to ignore it and shrug it off.

Groaning mentally he cursed. Maybe he was overreacting. He hadn't seen the girl for eight years and he wasn't even to know if she still had this affect on him. And even if she'd have, no one had to see that. Kaiba was used to not showing any kind of emotion and he could do that once more – hopefully. Probably she wasn't even that pretty and kind anymore and he character had probably changed, too. Now she would be like anyone else, prejudging and annoying.

"Well, if that isn't the great Seto Kaiba?" The penetrating voice of Joey Wheeler reached Seto's ears and he immediately glared at the blond who had suddenly appeared in front of Kaiba.

"Mind your own business, Wheeler." Kaiba replied coldly.

"I will, don't worry." Joey headed off to a pool table taking the queue. As usual Tristan Taylor was accompanying him and they started a match of pool billiard.

Wheeler. He was annoyed by that dumb mask of a third rate duelist ever since he had first met him. The name seemed to promise any kind of headache in Seto, whether it concerned Joey or his sister Serenity. Joey was living with Mai Valentine, not in marriage, but for years as a happy couple. Would Serenity live now with Mokuba forever? Would it be like this? Seto's headache even grew but that was nothing compared to what should happen little later.

Out of nothing, suddenly, Seto was looking into the two blue-gray eyes of his raven haired brother, accompanied by Serenity Wheeler.

"Hey Seto!"

"Mokuba…" Totally caught off guard Kaiba stated not daring to shift his gaze to the girl.

"Hello Kaiba." Her sweet voice flowed from her mouth too soon. "Do you still remember me?"

"I don't have Alzheimer." He snapped at her.

"I was just asking." She said a bit taken aback and took Mokuba's hand while she was waving with the other one to her big brother on the pool table.

"What you're doing here?" Kaiba asked his little brother blatantly.

"Well, I thought as you've said you'd be here, we might as well join. The evening's young!" Grinning he explained and greeted Joey as well.

Gladly, Serenity moved over to her brother and hugged him. Mokuba followed her on her heels, giving Seto time to get used to them both being together. Serenity hadn't changed that much. She still had those long auburn hair and big hazel eyes. Still, she had grown more mature, shaped well but with a young spirit to her. If Seto wasn't all wrong, he felt the symptoms of his affection for her again. Growling rather low he silently stood up, heading for another place to sit.

The upper area of the club was quite fine. It had a bar, a few tables and sofas to sit on and you could watch the people on the floor below. Standing at the railing his gaze darted once more to Mokuba and Serenity. They were a cute couple and certainly Serenity loved his brother and that was all what it should take to make Seto happy. Instead he wasn't and he felt bad about it. Turning he sat down on the sofa nearby and ordered Scotch.

Meanwhile downstairs Joey had lost another ten dollars to Tristan who was obviously better playing pool. Groaning slightly annoyed Joey knew he should stay with Duel Monsters to bet with money. But he didn't give up so far and challenged Tristan for another round before Mai and Tea entered the place. Mai immediately went over to Joey and pecked his cheek.

"Hey darling." Joey smiled and placed the queue on the table.

"Hey, I hope you don't gamble away our money again." Mai said with a suspicious raised eyebrow while Tea grinned, knowing how many times Joey had done that lately.

"Me? No, no. I wouldn't do that." Joey replied quite nervously and failing to goal the hit ball.

"Yeah, right." The blonde woman stated and sent Tristan a warning glance.

"Mokuba and Serenity are here, too, Mai. Even Kaiba. Guess he finally knows about his brother dating my sister." Joey told casually to change the subject from his bet.

"Really? Who are they?" Mai asked.

Joey showed where Mokuba and Serenity had found a quite cozy place to sit. Mokuba sat opposite his girlfriend and held her hands in his across the small table. She smiled sweetly at him while he was talking. Then he leant forward to brush his lips against hers. Mai picked a peanut from out of a bowl with snacks and threw it at Mokuba.

"Keep it G-rated!" She yelled over to the surprised looking couple while she was heading with Tea to join them at their table.

"Really, Mai, sometimes you can even be worse than Joey." Mokuba rubbed his head where the peanut had hit him.

Mai just winked at the two of them, smiling sweetly, and sat down next to Serenity while Tea sat down next to Mokuba. Serenity and Mai hugged each other being almost sisters-in-law.

"Hey you two." Tea greeted them both. "How are you?"

"Fine are they, if that's not obvious!" Mai spoke for them with a mischievous grin. "So your brother finally knows about you then. Where is he by the way?"

"I've got no clue. He was sitting at the bar when we were coming but he must have been gone somewhere else. No idea." Mokuba stated and sipped at his drink.

"I don't know but he didn't seem okay with me and you." Serenity shyly told.

"No, don't think that, Seren. He's just not a really sociable type of guy. Probably he just has something else rather than us in his mind." Mokuba tried to assure his girlfriend.

"Not a really sociable guy…" Tea repeated with a raised eyebrow. "That way I've haven't seen his attitude so far."

A glare from Mokuba let her rise to get a drink while Mai tried to cheer up the moods telling yet another tale about Joey and his habits, this time his habit of talking when he sleeps.

Tea instead joined the pool table after she had gathered herself a drink. Yugi had come meanwhile and after greeting the three friends at the small table, he had joined Joey and Tristan, watching their pool game.

"Hey Tea."

"Hi Yugi." She offered a friendly smile. "Seems like Joey should stay with playing cards, huh?"

"Yeah, I'm just here for about ten minutes and he's lost another ten dollar." Yugi stated smiling.

"Oh my, if Mai gets to know, she'll bite his head off." Tea replied chuckling but with a worrying short glance at the blond woman.

Yugi sighed. "They're together now for almost six years. It still works. How do they do that? I doubt it has anything to do with Joey gambling their money away."

"No clue." Tea stated.

"Would you please shut up now?" Joey suddenly shrieked. "I can hear you two!" He waved with his hand furiously.

"C'mon Joey, that was a compliment. They're envying you because of your relationship to Mai." Tristan helped to mend the air cutting atmosphere.

Gladly Joey just shrugged and kept playing pool with Tristan. It went quiet between Yugi and Tea. She had no clue if Yugi envied Joey and Mai but she indeed did. Yugi had been her best friend for most of her life but never had he been a boyfriend to her. After her crush at Yami she had even once tried with Bakura and Duke Devlin but they were just not what she needed.

Realizing what Tea needed, it dawned on her that it was indeed her best friend Yugi. So he was not very tall but at least as tall as Yami by now. He had quite childish features but she loved them nevertheless. Mai had found a friend in Joey and fell in love with him. Tea had no clue about Joey but that's what Mai had once told her. But after quite short time and it had taken Tea more than five years to finally realize her true love. The point now was, if it wasn't too late.

As if calling for the devil in disguise a blonde head appeared next to Yugi.

"Hello Yugi." A perfect smile appeared on the sweet face of Rebecca Hawkins and with a swift movement of her head she pushed her long blond hair behind her shoulders.

Rebecca was also in love with Yugi, always has been obvious. After she had graduated University in the US with an super A diploma and a doctor title by only the age of thirteen she had moved to Domino joining its University of arts to gather even more different knowledge and A grades. She had grown to a really hot girl, too. Even Tea as a girl could see why guys fell to her feet.

Rebecca was openly showing her crush on Yugi and she was impressive in any way. She didn't wore glasses anymore but lenses within her clear light green eyes. Grown almost as tall as Tea she also had a well shaped figure. This evening she was wearing a short blue skirt and a green shirt that made sure everyone could see how well shaped she was if they weren't able to do that so far. Tea had grown to keep her own feelings towards Yugi inside, waiting for the right moment to tell him for more than one year now.

"Rebecca, hello." Yugi smiled at her. "Looking nice tonight." He stated seeing how she was dressed.

Tea didn't expect Rebecca to acknowledge or greet her but sent a dismissive glance at the blond haired girl which got impressively ignored.

"Thanks Yugi, you're charming as ever. How are you? I was hoping you'd show up tonight." Rebecca babbled what really got Tea by her raw nerves. She turned to walk to the bar once more. Her drink had faded into nothing without her being aware.

"Where are you going?" Yugi asked and Tea turned.

"I'm heading to get another drink. Do you want anything, too, Yugi?" She asked her best friend with the spiky hair who shook simply his head.

"I take a water, Tea, thank you." Rebecca said and immediately turned her attention back to Yugi telling him what a day she had had. One thing was guaranteed with the blond witch. Even if she didn't even greet you the way politeness bid, she knew you when she needed something.

Tea just breathed out between gritted teeth and headed to the bar. There was no need to lose her temper, right? Wrong. When Tea came back with her drink and the glass of water for Rebecca she accepted it without a thank you, rather telling Yugi that she wanted revenge after losing to him playing pool last evening. Tea didn't even know he had been here last night.

"You really owe me revenge, Yugi." Rebecca almost clung to Yugi, holding his arm which looked quite awkward.

"If Joey's going to stop losing any time soon." Yugi replied gazing at Joey handing Tristan ten dollar once more.

"Or we might as well give them both revenge for last evening?" Rebecca giggled.

Yugi smiled at her and she pouted.

"It had been so much fun last night when we were both playing together against Joey and Tristan. I bet we both would be a good team in any competition." The girl grinned and elbowed Yugi softly which made him blush and grin sheepishly.

Tea had had enough now. She couldn't see them anymore, couldn't stand Rebecca and Yugi flirting. She hadn't known so far about Yugi having been here last night, with Rebecca! Have they been on a date even? Who knew! It seemed like Tea wasn't someone to tell anything, anyway. She felt left out. Even as a friend. So taking her drink in her hand she left the pool table and wandered around the club. The people there weren't of any interest for her, she just needed some space.

After climbing the steps to the upper floor she was standing at the railing and gazed down on Yugi and the blond witch. She leant close to him and probably whispered something into his ear which had made him laugh. Yeah, what a bloody joke! Only that Tea couldn't laugh about it.

"Eh woman, what's to watch down there?"

The voice behind her startled her but even more because she knew whom it belonged to. The brown haired woman turned to see the figure of Seto Kaiba sitting on the sofa behind her with a lazy smirk on his face.

"Kaiba. So you've been fled upstairs. Well, and there we were, riddling about where you might have gone."

"Your own fault, I'd say." He almost smiled which was rare, still.

"Right. You've probably got your reasons." Tea smiled quite sadly.

"I suppose you must have reasons as well. It's rare to see you without your bugging clique around. Or are you watching over them from upstairs!" He asked with quite a high pitched tone to his last sentence and wriggled almost his nose.

"No, I was in search for you to see a lovely smile." She smirked ironically and pleased with her joke. It wasn't any of Kaiba's business after all why she was here.

"Great, then sit down and have a drink." He offered the chair next to him and lifted his bottle of brown liquid. "Scotch?"

Tea shrugged and let herself fall in the offered chair. In normal circumstances she wouldn't try to be sociable with Kaiba but hell, the day had been bad enough and a Seto Kaiba being nice was at least a positive surprise. But she declined the offered alcohol with pulling a face.

"Scotch? No, thank you."

"What do you want to drink instead? Beer, wine, champagne?" The last word he said again quite high pitched and with a raised eyebrow but also with a cheeky smirk.

Tea thought how weird he was acting but when he mentioned the word champagne she couldn't help but smile and her blue eyes lit up like a bright light.

"Fine." He stated and called the waiter to bring a bottle of champagne. "Drink as much as you want. I hate to drink alone."

"Why are you drinking at all?" Tea asked and received an annoyed groan.

"Why are you looking like someone's died?" He countered. "Questions, questions. Are you here to talk about things like that? Well, I'm not. I'm here to have fun. Funny, huh?" He grinned lopsided and handed Tea the glass he had filled for her with champagne. "Cheers."

"Cheers."

Later that night one floor down Mokuba and Serenity were ready to leave after a quite long talk with Mai. Yugi and Rebecca indeed tried their luck once again beating Joey and Tristan in a game of pool. It had been funny to watch so far but Mai wondered where Tea had gone.

"Mai, Mokuba and I are going now. I'm staying overnight at his place, please tell Joey." Serenity informed the blond woman.

"Yeah, okay. Have a nice night then." Mai grinned and hugged the small grown young woman.

"And if you see my brother, tell him, the don't disturb sign's meant to _him_!" Mokuba was a cheeky one at jokes like that and it worked with girls so far. The only exception being Rebecca Hawkins but that was past.

"I'd rather like to know where Tea has gone." Mai replied but the couple went nevertheless, leaving Rainmen's. "Yugi, do you have a clue where Tea has disappeared?" She called out to the three colors haired man.

"No, I'm afraid not." He replied. "Do you think we should see where she's gone?"

"Well, I'll take a look around, okay? You keep playing, I'll be okay on my own." Mai went off and headed through the club.

There were people all around but she didn't find Tea. Until she climbed the stairs to the upper floor where she recognized Seto Kaiba talking to a woman. He seemed actually quite sociable – regarding to the word Mokuba had used. He was talking with a brown haired woman and they were laughing and enjoying their little talk. The shock almost slapped Mai's face when she recognized the woman he was talking with. It was indeed Tea.

"And that's why I think ice cubes should be round." Seto explained funnily with a adoring cute smile on his usually sharp features.

Tea was giggling at his explanation of why ice cubes should be round. "I could imagine other reasons why ice cubes should be round." She smiled wickedly. "Have you ever used them with a girl?" Her grin even grew.

Seto's face broke into a grin as well but he mimicked modesty. "Once or twice." He calmly replied.

"Tea!" Mai voice broke the atmosphere between the two of them. "We have been looking for you."

"Mai. That's nice of you but it's okay. No circumstances for me. I quite enjoy time here with Seto." Tea stated happily and obviously slightly or even much too drunk. So far Mai couldn't decide but she got worried, though.

"Seto?" She asked sarcastically.

"That's still me, after all." Seto's eyes narrowed facing Mai and his smile faded.

"I know." Mai hissed. "Tea, please come back down to us. The others are still playing pool and it's quite funny."

"Quite isn't enough, right Seto?" Tea said and reassured herself with a nod. "It's much funnier here with Seto. He is really socia…. soci… whatever, he is much more fun than watching a lame game of pool."

"Tea!" Mai said in a warning tone.

"No, no, Mai. It's okay. Go down to the others and have fun. I'll stay here. It's safe, you know? He doesn't bite, right Seto?"

"Not so far." Seto told Tea with a hint of a joke.

The blond haired woman just shook her head and left. Not only that Tea was drunk but also Kaiba. She had never seen him smile at a woman at all. Not to mention his grin, the jokes, the way he was talking – drunk. Mai was worried but Tea was old enough and if she wanted to enjoy herself with the company of Seto Kaiba, then she should have her will.

When Mai approached the rest of the remaining friends she was surprised that obviously their match of pool had ended. Joey was half sitting on the pool table and took a last sip from his beer. Rebecca glued to Yugi who was nodding to something she said smiling while Tristan stood in front of Joey.

"Eh Mai, we lost again to Yugi and Rebecca, I'm sorry." Joey tried to apologize but seeing Mai didn't really care he was wondering. "What's wrong? Have you found Tea?"

"Yeah, I found her, unfortunately." Was her response. Now even Yugi came to hear what was wrong. "She's on the upper floor drinking with Kaiba."

Silence swept over them before Joey finally needed to ask. "Kaiba? You don't mean Seto Kaiba, do you?"

"Yes, I do mean Seto Kaiba. They're both upstairs and quite drunk as far as I can see. I'm worried. It's so unlike Tea to drink with men, not to mention Kaiba." Mai replied with her head hanging low. "But anyway, she wants to be left alone. I've tried to convince her to come back down to us but she refuses. Maybe we should just leave her."

"No, we can't just leave her." Yugi cut in now. "We've got to at least ask her once more."

"I agree with Yugi. We need to at least ask her once more. We're friends for such a long time and she wouldn't say that if she doesn't mean it. Let's try together once more." Tristan suggested and grabbed his jacket.

Joey pulled himself off the table and put on his blue jean jacket as well. "If she doesn't want to come along with us, we gotta go though. I need to work tomorrow if I want or not."

"Hey, can anyone of you drive me home? I'm afraid my friends are all gone by now." Rebecca asked and smiled sweetly at Yugi, batting her eyelashes.

"Yeah, of course." Yugi agreed being the polite guy he was. Of course Rebecca can't go home all by herself, alone, in the middle of the night and she thanked him with a smile.

Together they made their way upstairs where they found Tea in the same chair as minutes ago. This time she held a glass of liquid in her hand and was talking to Kaiba while giggling throughout.

"Tea, I have to say, you are really great company. How come, I didn't notice so far?" Kaiba asked and leant forward touching one of Tea's knees. "Plus, you've got taste in fashion." He let his eyes wander up the length of her legs across her black skirt and the pink top she was wearing. Stopping only one second more breast height, his gaze shifted further to her blue eyes.

"Thanks. But how come we never did this before? We should go out more often with each other and drink senseless." She giggled and received another cute smile of the tall man with the chestnut hair.

"Yeah, we should go out every night. Just you and me. And our friends, Ms. Champagne and Mr. Scotch." Seto joked but unfortunately Tea's friends had finally arrived the two of them and gazed at Seto as well as Tea with quite dismissive expressions.

"Tea," Yugi began and tried to get her attention. "We're about to leave. Do you come with us?"

Her blue-eyes gaze darted up to Yugi and the rest of them. Rebecca. Tea shook her head and turned back to Kaiba.

"No, I'm gonna stay here."

"Really? We just don't like to leave you here all alone. Usually we come together and go together. It surely would be better if I'm gonna drive you home now." Yugi tried to convince his friend.

"Really. I want to stay here and I think I'm old enough to decide that by myself." She stubbornly answered.

"How will you come home?" Joey this time tried his luck.

"I'll take a cab. What's wrong with you? I'm fine and I know how to call a cab. Don't worry. I just want to stay a bit longer and talk with Seto."

Yugi's gaze shifted to Kaiba who sat there quite silent with an arrogant look in his eyes. He couldn't understand why they didn't leave Tea alone if she wanted to be. He didn't want her to leave either. They had fun. More fun than Kaiba would have ever imagined when he went out that night.

"What's your problem?" Kaiba spoke up. "Tea wants to stay here and you want to go. So go and I promise that she's going to get home safe."

The rest of the clique stood there in silence for a moment until Yugi sighed.

"Fine." He couldn't do anything. Tea was sitting cross armed on her chair and pouted while Kaiba was at least being cooperative and so far, Yugi trusted Kaiba. "We'll leave without you, Tea. I'm gonna call you tomorrow."

With that Yugi went, Rebecca on his heels. Reluctantly Mai and Joey followed, as well as Tristan. Outside Rainmen's Joey suddenly stopped.

"Do you think it was okay to leave Tea alone with Kaiba?"

Yugi turned to face his friend. "What else are we supposed to do? We can't drag out a twenty-four year old woman. She should know what she does. Tomorrow I'll give her a call and see if she's okay. That's all I can do for her, I'm afraid."

Joey nodded. "You're right. It's just strange. I never trusted Kaiba and to leave her with him…?"

"We just have to trust both of them." Yugi stated and opened the car's door for Rebecca to get in. "Good night."

"Night Yugi." The rest of them said their goodbyes and climbed in Mai's car to drive home.

It was even later when Tea and Kaiba were still chatting and drinking. Finally the lights of the club switched on and a waiter informed that they were supposed to close in a few minutes.

Tea sighed. "Do you have a cell phone? I need to call the cab."

"Nonsense. I will drive you home." Kaiba simply stated.

"You want to drive? How much have you been drinking, Seto?" Tea didn't get it.

"I won't drive by myself, Tea, I will be driven. And you, too." He said with a smile and paid their latest drinks before he grabbed his coat and tried to pull it on. With difficulties as he was really, nearly badly drunk.

Tea stood up and tried to steady herself. Clutching a small hand to her forehead she realized how much she really had drank. Gladly Seto had seen her coat and held it open for her to pull in on. She smiled thankful and tried to walk with him to the door. Unfortunately she was stumbling but Kaiba caught her right in time and with his arm around her waist he guided her outside to his limousine. The driver had been waiting all the time and Tea almost felt sympathy for him.

"Ooh, you really allow me to get driven with you in your limo?" She raised her eyebrows when Seto held the door open for her to climb inside.

"Sure." Seto smiled climbing quite clumsy after the woman. "It would look quite stupid if I wanted to stuff you in the boot." He grinned another wicked smile and sat finally down next to her. "Where are you living?"

Tea told the driver her street's name and Seto ordered the man to take off to their destination. Kaiba then pushed a button to let the shield between the passenger's seats and the diver's seat appear. While it slowly went to shut them out from the driver he leant back lazily to sit quite squeezed to Tea. Seto laid his arm around her shoulders.

"Quite comfortable, isn't it? It should be like this every time." He stated calmly.

Actually, it didn't felt that bad, Tea had to admit. She liked it within Kaiba's arms. It was cozy and he always had been a man with whom any girl would feel safe. She nodded to his question and laid a hand upon his knee before she gazed upwards into his sapphire blue eyes.

"Yeah," Tea breathed and before she really knew what was happening Seto had bent forward to kiss her. His hand had moved to her thigh where he hovered at the hem of her skirt.

Slowly Tea's hand raised up to entangle with the brown strands of hair at the base of Seto's nape. She wanted to kiss him as well and enjoyed what was happening. They were deepening their kiss and it began to get quite passionate when the car stopped. Almost unaware that they had arrived their destination they kept on kissing each other when suddenly, Tea broke their kiss, trying to catch her breath back.

The blue eyed woman nevertheless didn't let go of Kaiba and gazed in his blue eyes. "Do you want to come up with me?"

An offer Seto couldn't possibly refuse. "Yeah." He answered simply and climbed out of the car, followed by Tea.

Under normal circumstances Tea would certainly never ask Seto Kaiba or any other man up to her apartment but with the alcohol in her blood, she really didn't want to be alone tonight. That night she had had fun and the fun hadn't to stop here.

Kaiba had ordered his driver to go home and made his way together with Tea up to her apartment which was on the third floor. Fumbling in her hand bag for her keys Seto wrapped his arms around her waist from behind and leant down to kiss her neck. A low murmur escaped the brown haired woman and she almost forgot what she was looking for in her hand bag.

"Finally," Tea led Kaiba in when she had found the key and opened the door. "Welcome in my home. I'm back in a minute."

Tea called out while she rushing into her bathroom, leaving Seto alone for a minute. After he had taken off his coat he gazed around the apartment for a while but wasn't really interested in the rooms, anyway. His eyes lit up when Tea came back, also her coat had left her body.

"Do you want something to drink?"

"No." Seto shook his head and took Tea's hands in his.

The woman instead slowly walked backwards, Seto following her, until they were both in Tea's bedroom. Kaiba let his eyes dance for a while to take in where he was until his gaze stopped at the smiling Tea who had raised an eyebrow. But no words spoken Kaiba simply leant down to kiss her and what grew quite slow in comparison to their first kiss, this one started quickly and with passion.

It didn't take them both much time to lay down on Tea's bed with Seto on top of her. He kissed her and touched her and soon found her way too overdressed to what he had in his mind. The woman tugged at Seto's shirt. She wanted him, needing to feel his warm flesh.

Tea shouldn't get disappointed.

(A/N: See? I promised a longer chapter and right now, my eyes hurt. I will cut the second chapter here. No further details allowed ;-D It's quite difficult to write Kaiba drunk, I must say, though. Can you imagine him being chatty and nice, smiling and laughing? Quite a weird thought…)


	3. Denial

**Delicate** by Sangha

* * *

Pairings: SetoxTea; TeaxYugi; YugixRebecca; RebeccaxMokuba; MokubaxSerenity; SerenityxSeto

Rating: I'll try to keep it PG 13

I've done the next chappy of Delicate and I'm glad you like it so far. Keep thinking of that English is not my original language, so accept my (few) mistakes. I think I'm pretty good although German! ;-D

**

* * *

Chapter 3 – Denial**

"Here it is."

Yugi stopped the car at the house Rebecca was pointing to. It was small but nice with it's white façade and the little garden which probably must look beautiful in summer.

"Nice." He smiled at the girl in his passenger's seat.

"My grandfather's chosen it. I don't really like it. It's so small. I wanted to have a house with a library but I guess, I gotta have to wait till I will earn my own money. Life is mean. There I am, almost graduated two universities and still, I can't even afford my own house." She sighed and pouted with a puppy eyes look in her eyes.

"I think it's nice. It may be small but it looks cozy. I guess I'd chose such a home if I was to start a family." He grinned, then laughed. "Just that I needed a place for the dog, too."

Rebecca joined in laughing but had missed the joke. She wondered why Yugi was to think so cliché about things like that. If he told her about a white picket fence, she'd certainly vomit. But when he would be her husband in further future, he was to accept the way she wanted to live. That was enough to make her smile. Yugi instead yawned.

"I hope your grandfather isn't mad, it's become late." Yugi thought of Rebecca's age.

"No, he's okay with me staying out late. But I will leave you though now. You seem quite tired." She smiled at him.

"Yeah, I guess I am. I grow too old." He joked.

"Are you going to Rainmen's tomorrow" The girl asked.

Yugi shrugged. "I suppose. Where else should we hang out?" He sent a smile.

"I'm glad. Then we'll see each other there."

Rebecca smiled happily looking forwards to the evending and leant closer to Yugi to give him a quick kiss on his lips before she climbed out of the car bidding Yugi goodnight. He watched as the blond haired girl walked to the front door of her home and disappeared inside before he automatically started to engine to drive home.

Yugi's thoughts drifted from one to another and he had difficulties to keep his mind focused on driving. First there had been Tea who was in his mind and he was worrying about. Then there was Rebecca who had kissed him. His mind seemed so confused. If only Yami would still be here and could help him with advise. He sighed and parked the car at the street in front of the Game Shop, still living there.

The bright winter's sunlight hit Kaiba's eyelids and they fluttered open. A weight was laying across his stomach and he could feel someone's breath tickle his skin. Using his free hand to wipe across his face he tried to wake properly when he remembered what had happened last night. He was in Tea Gardner's apartment and the weight he was feeling was one of her arms. Gladly she seemed to be fast asleep, still.

Carefully Seto lifted her arm and laid it across the bed sheets while he silently lifted his body from out of the bed. With no further hesitation he grabbed his clothes and got dressed. With his shirt still in his hands he tiptoed out of the bedroom and closed the door silently not to wake up the sleeping woman. Gladly she didn't wake up and Seto kept dressing himself until only his coat was left. Picking it up from the chair he had left it, Kaiba made his way out of Tea's apartment.

His heart was beating quite fast and loud while he made his way down the stairs. Kaiba was glad he could escape without Tea being aware but still, he knew it wasn't a good way to leave. He had made a mistake but wasn't in the mood to explain anything. Grabbing inside of his coat pocket he picked out his cell phone and dialed the number of his driver. He told him to send a car and began walking down the street to approach his destination.

Seto didn't want to be seen anywhere near the apartment of Gardner and still he had to get home. That's why he wanted his car to pick him up two blocks further down. He wasn't disappointed when the limo arrived just in time and he could quickly climb in.

"Home." He ordered the driver.

Tea blinked and opened her eyes. Remembering the happenings of last night she widened her blue eyes and sat up with a start, only to find her bed apart from herself empty. Where was Kaiba? His clothes had disappeared and her apartment seemed to be quiet. Letting herself fall down on her back she clutched a hand cross her face. How stupid had she been!

Wrapping the bed sheet around her body she wanted to be sure and left her bedroom to check if Kaiba was really gone. He was and Tea somehow was even glad about it, though it wasn't really polite. But f politeness. She would have had no clue on how to face him after what they had did. So both of them had been drunk but it had been nice, though. Tea switched on the kettle and went back into the bedroom to tidy up the left mess of clothes scattering on the ground when her phone rang.

"Yeah?" Her voice sounded hoarse when she laid down on her stomach with the receiver in her hand.

"_Hi Tea, this is Yugi. How are you?"_

"Yugi… fine, I'm fine. And you?" She knew the reason why Yugi called and wanted to know how she was but avoiding the subject she couldn't find a better way than to return the question.

"_Fine. Just wanted to be sure you've come home safe."_

"Course. No problem. I just… took a cab." She lied not wanting to make her friend worry even more. What she had done, was only her problem.

"_I'm glad you're fine. You sound quite hoarse. Hangover?_" He seemed to laugh.

"Uh… yeah." She admitted. "I had quite much but I'm fine. I'll threw two aspirins and that should do."

"_Good."_ Yugi paused. _"We'll be at Rainmen's this evening. Mai and Joey suggested to grab something to eat before. Are you coming along?"_

Tea thought for moment but she had nothing better to do anyway. "Sure." She replied before she thought of the possibility to see Kaiba there again. With mixed emotions she thought of that point. Actually there would be need to talk about what happened, though she felt nervous about it.

"_Great. We'll pick you up at 7 pm. Is that okay?"_

"Yeah, of course."

"_See you then, Tea. Bye."_

"Bye." Tea hung up the phone and sighed. Back to her normal life, spending time with her friends. Last night had been enough excitement in her life and she needed to get her head around that till this evening.

Kaiba entered the house and went straight up into his room where he was looking for something to change his clothes. Actually he needed a shower, too, but time was short and he needed to be at work. He would shower this evening he decided but brushed his teeth quickly and combed his hair neatly before he dressed himself properly in a working suit. He didn't notice his brother standing in the door.

"Morning bro," Mokuba sleepily smiled and yawned leaning at the doorframe.

Seto turned and took in the sight of his brother clad in only his boxers. He must have come just from out of his bed. Typical. That boy would never learn to live a life in routine with work!

"Morning," Seto replied. "Are you going to bring your ass to Kaiba Corporation any time soon?"

"Whoa… aren't we lovely this morning? By the way, where have you been last night?" Mokuba's grinned suspiciously.

"Nowhere." The brown haired brother was no one to lie but to stubbornly refuse to talk. He fixed his tie and made his way to leave.

"Have you been with a woman?" Mokuba raised his voices knowingly and the answering glare he got told him enough. He knew his brother too well sometimes. "Wow, how long has that been since you last have been with a chick, Seto?"

"I haven't been with a 'chick'." He denied walking out of his room to the staircase with Mokuba on his heels.

One of the doors in that particular corridor opened and an auburn haired sleepy girl piped out of the room, joining her boyfriend who had obviously fun bickering on about his brother's love life.

"Not a chick? Is it something serious then if it hasn't been a 'chick'? Or are you too old to admit?"

When Seto turned he took in the sight of Serenity who had joined the raven haired, standing next to him but with a quite confused look in her beautiful hazel eyes. She was clad in a white shirt from Mokuba in which she must have spent the night. It was much to large for her and hung loosely around her and still, suiting and hugging her body to a high level of adoration.

"Forget it. I was with no one to ever mention again, okay?" Now that glare Seto sent told his brother to close that subject finally. A glare caused by Mokuba but also Serenity. Just her presence was too much. "Anyway, I expect you at Kaiba Corporation in an hour, don't be late."

While Mokuba and Serenity stared after Seto, he made his way down the stairs leaving the two of them behind. Shrugging Mokuba walked back into his room again, followed by Serenity who laid back down on the bed. The raven haired stretched before he crawled with a mischievous smile onto his girlfriend. He leant down and softly kissed her neck while he hands entangled in his soft ebony hair.

"Aren't you going to get ready for work?" She asked, though she could have stayed with him in bed forever.

"Yes, but I've got more important things to do first." He said against her skin and grinned what made the small woman laugh.

"Isn't your brother going to get angry?"

"Who cares? He'll calm down." Mokuba stated and planted another kiss on the woman's neck.

"Is he always like that in the morning?" She couldn't get Kaiba out of her mind. His attitude was even worse than she was remembering.

Mokuba gazed at her and laughed. "He can be even worse." The grin faded then to a funnily thoughtful smirk. "I wonder with who he had spent the night. I need to ask him later again."

"Does he do that often?"

"To spend the night somewhere else? No, rarely. I guess he hasn't even spend any time with a woman for a few years now." Mokuba propped his head on his elbow. "When he was younger, around twenty, he used to have flings here and there but nothing serious."

"Hasn't he ever had a girlfriend? I mean, a real one, dating and stuff." Serenity was quite interested in the riddle Seto Kaiba was to her and other people.

Mokuba grinned again. "I don't think so." He let a hand snake beneath the woman's shirt and grazed his fingertips across her stomach while she had one of her arms around him. "Once, there had been a woman, a beautiful raved haired but I guess they only interacted in bed if you know what I mean."

"Quite sad. What happened?"

"She left him. He left her. I don't know exactly. I think she grew tired of him working all day and he probably grew tired of having a nagging person trying waste his precious time with things like spending time with each other." Mokuba rolled his eyes sarcastically. "Honestly, I don't know what happened, from one day to the other she just never showed up again. Seto never complained."

Serenity raised her eyebrows hardly believing that. "But he certainly must have fallen in love sometime in his life?"

Mokuba didn't answer, just gazed at his girlfriend. He had no answer to her question and actually they could use their short spare time for nicer things than to talk about his difficult big brother.

"You're quite interested in my brother, darling. Do I have to worry?" He smirked, then pouted.

Serenity laughed. "No, I'm just nosey, didn't you know? Get used to it, baby." She grinned and planted a soft kiss on her boyfriend's nose.

The tall dark haired man used this opportunity to lean down and kiss his girlfriend properly. He should at least show up at Kaiba Corporation till midday but until then, he wanted to use the free time to have fun with the woman he loved.

Joey entered the Game Shop and rang a little table bell. He grinned when a quite flustered looking head piped around the door frame to look at his customer, so short time before he would have closed anyway. Glad to see Joey he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Are you here yet? I'm not ready!" Yugi almost panicked but received a lazy smile from Joey who joined him in his living room.

"No, don't worry. Mai's got to pick up Tristan, she'll come later. I thought I might come a bit earlier, so we can knock down a beer beforehand. Warm up so to say." Joey casually walked to Yugi's fridge and grabbed to cans of beer.

"Not for me, Joey. Just make yourself comfortable while I prepare myself for later." Yugi called out and headed up the stairs.

The blond man sat down on the sofa and switched on the TV while he was opening the can of beer. There was nothing better than a cool beer and football. Unfortunately there was no football on TV and he cursed silently after he had switched off the TV again. Resting his feet on Yugi's small table he sighed in contentment.

"That's what a man's life should be." Joey stated when Yugi appeared looking neat as ever. "A man, a sofa and a can of beer."

"Alright Al Bundy, but I'm not called Peggy and therefore, you need to take your dirty feet off my table!" Yugi sat down next to his friend and gave his legs a push.

"Okay, okay." Joey pulled his legs off the table. "Have you called Tea? Is she coming along?"

"Yeah, we need to pick her up at seven. She sounded really hoarse, probably had a huge hangover." Yugi chuckled. "But I really hope she's okay by now."

"No wonder, she was drunk like hell. Still, I don't get it why she had drunken with Kaiba at all. I bet it was his influence which made her drink in the first place." Joey narrowed his eyes only thinking of Seto Kaiba.

"Maybe, who knows? We shouldn't prejudge, though." Yugi said. "It appears that Kaiba and her had drunken and had a funny evening. She told me that she had taken a cab home and she's fine. Probably it won't happen again, so why worry? Tea's not the kind of girl who'd fall for Kaiba."

"Oh, so that's the point. I understand." Joey stated the obvious with a small grin playing on his lips.

"What are you insisting?" Yugi furrowed a brow and gazed suspiciously at his friend.

"Nothing. I'm just wondering. Tea's been with Bakura and you were worrying that he'd change into his evil self again sometime, even without the Millennium ring. Then she has been with Duke, right? You were worrying that he might cheat on her because he was away so often because of his business. Now you're worrying she might fall for Kaiba, how strange!" Joey widened his eyes in mocked surprise but turned serious again. "Yugi, I tell you as a friend, if you have feelings for Tea, just tell her."

"I don't know, Joey. I gave her up long time ago. I'm not Yami, you know?" Yugi smiled sadly and Joey shook his head, not knowing what his friend meant. "I'm not stupid after all. I know Tea had once feelings for Yami and not me. I can quite understand that but I will never be the pharaoh."

"Yugi, man, you don't need to be the pharaoh! You're good as you are. You're not that tiny little guy anymore you've once been. You have Rebecca Hawkins after yourself, the hottest sixteen year old girl I've ever seen. She has hundreds of guys falling to her feet and she wants you! Damn, I can't believe why you aren't self-confident."

"Thanks, man." Yugi smiled a lopsided grin. "Probably you're right. I may be not the pharaoh but I'm still Duel Monster's world champion and as long as Tea wants to go for second best, she should chose Kaiba!" He grinned at his mean statement but laughed.

"Cheers." Joey grinned a huge smile as well. "One day I will beat Kaiba, too, and then I will propose to Mai and have four or five children and a huge house and two dogs, three cats and one bird!"

The two of them burst out in laughter. Joey would never lose his humor luckily because the day he would be married to Mai, have children with her and a huge house was as much to doubt as the fact that he would ever beat Kaiba. Having a friend like Joey was the best thing ever. Still, after all those years Yugi appreciated his friends most.

Minutes later Mai picked the two of them up, pulling with force at Joey's ear for drinking this early, and together they made their way to pick up Tea, too.

Kaiba came home in the evening after another huge heap of work and loosened his tie the second he entered his mansion. Ha had no clue about when Mokuba had finally turned up at work but knew that young man had left almost an hour ago what meant that he was probably at home. The noise coming from out of the kitchen told Seto that he was right.

Mokuba held the long wooden spoon up as if he had an idea after he had come up from kissing his beautiful girlfriend. Serenity was smiling at him when he knocked the spoon against the kitchen counter.

"Mokuba, you really don't have to do this. I could cook for the two of us." The young woman stood at the counter and smiled raising an eyebrow.

"Do you think I can't cook for my girlfriend?" He asked almost pouting and turned to look into a book lying on the counter. "I just need to read what I'm gonna have to do first."

Serenity laughed at his behavior cocking his head left and right during reading. Then he narrowed one eye and gazed quizzically at his book until his eyes widened and he lifted the wooden spoon heroically.

"Uhu! Duh! I found it. I'll need your help, though. Could do cut the vegetable?"

"Yeah, sure." Serenity replied and smiled.

Seto entered the kitchen as if he hadn't seen or heard anything and hung his jacket across one of the chairs. Then he went to open the fridge for a soda.

"Hi Seto," Mokuba said facing his brother.

"Hey," Kaiba replied and opened the soda taking a sip. "One of the computers from Kaibaland fell out. Again. Can you take a look at it tomorrow? I won't have the time, I'm afraid." He sighed and piled through the paper lying on the huge kitchen table. "I don't know if it's the weather but our computers are hanging themselves up repeatedly."

"Yeah, I'm gonna take a look at the damn thing tomorrow. Have you seen Roland today? I needed him to fly me to the new Duel Dome but I couldn't get him."

Serenity listened to the two brothers talking and thought about how different they were and yet, how similar. Probably Mokuba would never be such a businessman like his big brother but when taking his job serious, he could be as much of a businessman as Seto. It was good to hear that they didn't argue all day like this morning.

"I needed Roland for a test run with the new Duel Disk system." The tall brown haired looked up from his paper.

"Oh Seto, have you been testing by yourself again? I told you at least a hundred times you shouldn't do that. There are plenty of people who could do that. It's dangerous." Mokuba almost whined.

"Probably." The older Kaiba brother countered. "But give me one name who could do it _better_ than me and I will obey to what you say for the rest of my life."

Mokuba smirked at his comment knowing there wasn't anyone who would be better than his brother. He watched the tall brown haired grabbing his jacket and about to leave the kitchen.

"Eh Seto, are you at home this evening? I will cook. If you like something really delicate and superb to eat, you're invited." Mokuba grinned holding up his chin as if he had won the international cooking championship.

"I'm afraid I won't be at home but, enjoy yourself and good luck with the cooking." With that Seto left the couple staring after him before Mokuba turned to his girlfriend.

"He's going out again. I've got to know who _she_ is." Mischief wrote itself across his face.

Serenity chuckled. "And what if he's going out because of us? We can always hang around my place as well and your brother would have his peace." She slightly worried.

"My god, Serenity! This mansion's so big that you could find peace in 99 of the house, even though we're still in it. I doubt it is because of us. You are worrying too much, baby!"

Serenity nodded. "Probably."

"Exactly and now, make place for the masterpiece!" He announced the big frozen chicken.

Upstairs Kaiba hurried to get under the shower. He was pleased with himself as he had at least tried to be nice and to be happy for his brother. Still, he felt miserable. Mokuba was cooking for Serenity what made the girl smile and the big brother clench the insides of his chest. What was the thing about her?

Nevertheless Seto was proud somehow. He had been quite acceptable as a big brother and not to destroy the atmosphere he would leave the house in order to make sure he needn't to see them again. Hopefully they wouldn't come up with the idea of going out too, again. It was to doubt. Mokuba was a guy who liked going out but with the bird in his cage he'd prefer quality time in bed.

There was no need to picture Mokuba and Serenity in bed and yet, Seto couldn't help it. The clenching feeling in his chest came back and he felt the urge to vomit. Tearing his mind away from the two of them, he stepped out from under the shower and got dressed. At last after almost an hour he left the Kaiba household, this time with his own car. He would drive to be sure he wouldn't get drunk again.

Pulling out the black NSX he steered it down the streets of Domino until he approached Rainmen's. Parking the car at a safe spot he entered the club and was glad, that none of the usual faces were to be seen. Apart from Rebecca Hawkins who was dancing with two or three boys on the dance floor. Mokuba had had a crush on her for years and Seto couldn't get why. What was it about her that had made his very popular brother fall for anyone like her?

Rebecca had never even given Mokuba a chance. She didn't look at him twice apart from the fact that they were friends, only friends. Realizing Mokuba had no luck with her he had tried to befriend her and was lucky to receive at least her friendship. Hope came along that he might have a chance through friendship but he got disappointed again. Three years Mokuba had wasted his life to her and Seto cursed the girl for that. If only she would have given him at least a chance to try to make her happy, then Mokuba wouldn't be with Serenity right now.

Serenity. She was so different from Rebecca but Seto could understand every reason why Mokuba was with the small auburn haired. Seto sighed and left the bar with a beer in his hands heading for a table at the corner. He knew he couldn't escape the couple forever. But he tried until he would get used to them. It couldn't take forever, could it?

Fortune left Kaiba when he saw Yugi & Co. entering Rainmen's. Praying to god above he hoped they wouldn't see him but he had no luck. Yugi steered directly at the tall brown haired at the table, followed by Tea and Joey. Mai and Tristan meanwhile stopped at the bar.

"Hey Kaiba." Yugi greeted and sat down next to him. "Mind if we join?"

Tea sat down opposite Kaiba with Joey having squeezed next to her. She felt nervous being near Kaiba but she tried to act innocent.

"Do I have a choice?" Kaiba sneered at Yugi and glared as usual.

"You don't plan to get drunk again, do you?" Yugi grinned at the man.

"Not so far. I need to drive." Why was that he hadn't come up with one of his typical arrogant statements? It could be possible that Tea's presence was having a slight nervous affect on him but he chose to ignore it. And her.

That moment Rebecca chose the opportunity to greet Yugi. She had been waiting for him and rushed over to him the moment she had spotted the not so tall built young man. She stopped in front of the table and leant down to hug Yugi.

"Hi Yugi, I've been waiting for you." She announced happily.

Joey smirked. Yugi was one lucky guy having such a young chick after him. Tea on the other hand slightly cringed. Rebecca could call herself lucky that Tea was squeezed between Joey and the wall, otherwise she would have strangled the blonde right there and then.

"Hi Becky, we've just come. Do you want anything to drink?" Politely Yugi asked.

"No, thanks, Yugi. I was hoping you would play pool with me. You still owe me revenge, remember?"

Yugi laughed. "And there I was thinking you've forgotten after we've beaten Joey and Tristan last night." Seeing Rebecca pout he gave another short laugh and stood up. "Okay, fine, here we go. You shall have your revenge."

"Great!" Rebecca grabbed Yugi by his hand and pulled him along to the pool table while he turned slightly facing his friends, an apologizing look on his face.

Kaiba was glad he'd be able to leave the table now but he soon realized with fear that Mai Valentine had squeezed herself next to him, taking the place from Yugi. Seto stared at the glass of beer in front of him, being annoyed, once again. Hopefully Valentine would be quiet for once. Even Wheeler seemed to get it in his thickhead. But Kaiba had no such luck.

"Wow Kaiba, you're here, again, the second evening in succession, how come?" Mai sarcastically asked with a smirk playing on her red colored lips.

"Probably Mokuba and Serenity are giving him the creeps being in love!" Joey commented this in order to be ironic.

Kaiba's wasn't known as ever been in love. Probably he couldn't even spell the word love, Joey was convinced. But he had no clue how close he was to the truth with his words. Seto knew the word love and its meaning and that was the reason his brother and Wheeler's sister was giving him the creeps, indeed somehow. Kaiba glared at Joey but smirked.

"Actually, I was up for a horror show. That's why I came here to see your face, Wheeler." Now Seto had been more pleased with his own statement.

"Touchy." Wheeler laughed. "You're still as funny as ever, Kaiba. But I'm not up for a laugh. That's why I'm gonna leave you now." Joey made his way to stand up and pulled Mai along with him.

"Don't get drunk again!" The blonde called out to Tea whilst heading for the pool table where Tristan already was watching Yugi's and Rebecca's game.

"I won't." Tea smirked at her friend and turned to see Kaiba staring at his beer. Unknown to her that he had just missed the right moment to escape, she decided that she needed to bring up the subject of last night.

"Listen, Seto, about last night-"

"It's Kaiba, still." He growled at her and sent a piercing cold glare at the brown haired woman.

Tea gazed at him in shock for a while, realizing he was back to normal and she needed to get used to the same old attitude before she continued.

"Then Kaiba for God's sake, listen, about last night. We need to talk about what happened."

"I don't think so." He stated calmly.

"You can't deny what happened. You can't ignore it and continue as if nothing has happened between us." Tea tried to convince the stubborn looking man.

"You'll see how I can." With that Kaiba made his way to stand up and headed for the exit. He was in no mood to face Tea and anything concerning last night. The last thing he needed was another woman who tried to waste his time and money. They had been all like that.

Tea sighed shaking her head but she didn't give up so easily.

"No! You've won again." Rebecca exclaimed pouting at Yugi who smiled apologetically. "Can I get another try?"

"Okay but first things first. My beer wants out." Yugi grinned and excused himself going to the toilet. He almost bumped into the leaving Seto Kaiba who was waltzing straight through the crowds, trying to get out of here.

"Kaiba, wait!"

Reaching almost the exit Seto heard a voice calling him and made the fatal mistake to turn around. It was Tea who tried to block his way.

"I won't let you run out on me just like that. All I want is to talk with you about what was between you and me last night." She reasoned.

"But I'm not in the mood for any talking, got that?" He replied annoyed and tried to shove Tea away. With success he passed her by but Tea didn't stop with her speech.

"Kaiba, listen to me! Why are you running away? I just want to know why this had happened between us. I can't accept ignoring it as if nothing has happened last night."

Growling Kaiba stopped and gazed back over his shoulder. Calming down he started his reply trying to make Tea see that he doesn't want to argue.

"Listen to _me_, Gardner. You want to know why this has happened? I'm gonna tell you. Because you and me were both drunk to an abnormal extent. That's why we've spent a really hot night together. It had been fun, it had been good. But, it had been a mistake. Don't tell me you think otherwise. Me and you, what a joke, after all. That's why I'm really not in the mood to talk about what's not important anymore, anyway." Shaking his head he left the club.

Tea's head hung low. She felt miserable. Kaiba was such a stubborn bastard. He should just hear her out but he didn't even accept any other opinion than his own. Even if Tea wouldn't be so far away from his with hers. How sad. Turning she gazed into two wide violet eyes. Yugi stared at her in disbelief.

"Yugi…" Tea realized he must have heard what Kaiba had said but she couldn't deny it, even if her best friend was looking so disappointed in her. She could understand him. She dropped her gaze to the floor in pure shame and her head and shoulders hang low.

Yugi just turned and walked back to his friends.

(A/N: About the place 'Rainmen's' – I had to come up with a place where they had the possibility to meet each other, even Kaiba. That makes him a bit off character, I guess. Even if such a place existed, he'd refuse to go there. So Mr. Kaiba, how are authors supposed to let you interact with other persons, then? Anyway – tell me what you think so far. Reviews appreciated!)


	4. Rejected

**Delicate** by Sangha

* * *

Pairings: SetoxTea; TeaxYugi; YugixRebecca; RebeccaxMokuba; MokubaxSerenity; SerenityxSeto

Rating: I'll try to keep it PG 13

* * *

First of all I need to answer the questions from one of the reviews I got:

_Where is Yami? Where is Bakura? Why is everybody cheating on each other?_

Yami – I assumed he'd be gone be the years passed. Doesn't he leave Yugi at the end of Yu-Gi-Oh? I don't know exactly but well, in my fic he's gone. Yugi should be 24 years old by now and has a normal life after all.

Bakura – he's just not part of this fic. Just like the Ishtars. Or Duke Devlin, though he and Bakura were mentioned.

Cheating? No one is cheating so far. Tea's single. Kaiba's single. Yugi's single. Rebecca's single. Just Mokuba is with Serenity and Joey is with Mai. They're not cheating. So far... hee hee!

About the pairings... three of the above mentioned pairings I don't like myself but three of them I love. So let's see what happens... I can't tell you more but I hope it'll make sense in the end. I'd be glad you stayed with me. Thx. Btw, in the end there's a little bit JoeyxMai planned (but they won't cheat, don't worry!).

* * *

**Chapter 4 – Rejected**

Tea's eyes fastened on the mirror to look at her reflection. Her eyes felt sour though she hadn't been crying. She had spent almost quarter an hour locked in one of the toilet cubicles, not wanting to face anyone. But she knew, she needed to come out before someone would try to check on her. With a sigh and deep breath she made her way out of the woman's toilets and through the crowds until she approached her friends.

The pool game was on again but Tea sat down at the table in the corner. It seemed that Yugi and Rebecca were again as a team trying their luck against Tristan and Joey. Yugi and Tristan were really good players when it came to billiard and Joey wasn't so far behind. The only person who was actually playing badly was Rebecca but with Yugi's help she won repeatedly. He was laughing at her when she tried to focus her target and shook his head. Then Yugi bent over the blonde and together they even goaled.

Maybe it should be that Yugi and Rebecca found each other. So many guys were after her but she refused going out with them. She wanted Yugi. Tea instead ran with the next best guy in her bed. She was weak. She wasn't worth Yugi. Maybe she wasn't even worth Kaiba. All she was worth was Kaiba refusing even to talk to her about what had happened.

"Woah Tea, what's with the long face?"

Darting her blue-eyed gaze upwards Tea saw Mai friendly smiling at her. The blonde sat down opposite her and her look turned into a worried expression.

"It's nothing, why do you ask?" The brown haired lied and forced a smile.

"Where have you been so long by the way? I almost thought you would have been disappeared with Kaiba again for another drinking session." Mai grinned but had no clue how Tea's stomach felt the urge to churn hearing these words.

"I was looking around, then I've been in the toilets and after that I was going back here." Tea tried to convince her friend with her lie.

Mai laughed. "Okay, okay. I believe you. Still, I doubt you're enjoying yourself here tonight."

"Maybe." Tea admitted. "I'm quite bored. Isn't there any other game than pool left? Maybe I should fly over to Pegasus and inspire him for a new Duelist Kingdom?" The brown haired joked.

"Great idea Tea!" Mai chirped. "And how will you 'inspire' him?"

"I fill him up. Just like I did with Kaiba." Ironically Tea replied.

Mai laughed at her joke which wasn't really funny from Tea's point of view. "C'mon you lame woman." The blonde pulled at Tea's wrist when she stood up.

"Where to?" The brown haired asked but followed willingly until they had reached the back exit.

Without hesitation Mai pushed the door opened and pulled Tea out in the cold with her. Reaching into her tiny breast pockets the blond woman pulled out a pack of cigarettes and lit one for Tea, then another one for herself.

"I haven't done that for ages." Tea said and shuddered from the cold winter's air. "I thought you gave up smoking."

Mai grinned. "I did. Do you see me smoking?"

Tea laughed. "No, do you see me?"

Giggling Mai turned slightly serious. "Just don't tell Joey about it. He's going to kill me if he finds out about the cigarettes. I've just got them from the bartender."

"No problem. Just tell him they're mine." Tea grinned and pulled at the cigarette in her hand.

"It's late, where's that woman of mine?" Joey exclaimed trying to stand on his toes in order to watch out for Mai.

"Freak." Tristan said and shook his head. He had successfully received the phone number of a pretty girl named Miho. He elbowed his blond friend in his ribs. "Shall I call her right when I'm back at home already? What do you think, Joey?"

Joey rolled his eyes. "Are you insane? It's after midnight! Wait till… um… let's say midday tomorrow, then invite her for cinema and maybe dinner. That's how you get her." The blond man was sure.

"Really? What do you think, Yugi?" Tristan turned to see Yugi sitting with Rebecca on his lap. She was talking like a maniac while their friend stared at her with a glint of mischief in his violet eyes. "Yuuugiii." Tristan waved his hand and finally their friend turned.

"What is it?" He asked having one of his arms around the blonde's waist.

"Tristan wants to know if you're ready to go." Joey cut in seeing that Mai and Tea were coming back. "We need to drive home."

"Yeah, sure." Yugi said. "Just a minute." Then he turned back to Rebecca who was pouting. "How do you come home tonight?"

"To be honest, I've no idea. I guess I need to watch out if one of my friends is still here and if not, I've to call a cab." She smiled sadly knowing Yugi wouldn't leave her.

"We're five in the car, so you won't be able to drive with us." Yugi explained and the blond girl's gaze dropped. "But I will be able to walk you home instead. Is that an offer?" He smiled at her flirting.

Rebecca's mood was on top. Yugi would walk her home. That was great. Finally she seemed to get what she wanted. Grabbing her coat she happily left the club with her crush.

After senselessly driving around Domino Kaiba finally decided to head home. There was nowhere he wanted to be, actually, and nothing seemed to take off his mind from these disturbing thoughts anyway. After parking the car he entered the house. It was quiet and no single noise could be heard apart from the ticking of different clocks. Seto was glad. He assumed that Mokuba and Serenity were probably already in bed.

Striding up the staircase Seto walked to his bedroom and took off his jacket as well as his shirt, leaving him in a simple t-shirt. Sleep wasn't to claim over him yet and he sat down on his small desk, switching on the laptop. It had always been helping to take his mind off unnecessary things. Things like women. Women like Tea or even Serenity. He just hoped Tea had finally understood that he had no mind to repeat anything from their spent night again with her. It had been a mistake to do so in the first place.

And Serenity – he just had to get used to her being with his brother. Seto loved the guy to bits and there was no way, he would be standing in his way to be happy with the one and only girl the older Kaiba had ever had feelings for. Mokuba came first and that was final. Serenity was a nice girl but falling in love with someone and cherishing someone were two different things in the end and who was Kaiba to know if things would turn out good between him and her if they were together. He would need a guarantee. There was no such, of course. The main reason for him being still single.

If only he could block that woman from out of his mind, or at least his heart. Then he could be cruel to her like to the rest of the world. But he might work on himself to be cruel to her and maybe so he could block her out. Seto sighed which sounded more like a low growl. He was hungry and hadn't even eaten anything so far today. If Mokuba knew, he would lecture him about healthy food for three long weeks.

Reluctantly Seto made his way down into the kitchen. Opening the fridge he immediately saw the result of Mokuba's cooking try next to an half of an ordered pizza. Why didn't he let the girl cook! Seto's stomach almost decided against food seeing the half chicken of a cooking result and cast his eyes to the half pizza. Even worse he thought and closed the fridge. Deep in thought what the hell he could eat he stood there not moving a single eyelash. It was never a good idea to eat at night when not a single maid was here to cook him something.

"Hey." A careful female voice penetrated his ears.

Seto turned with a start, so sudden that the fragile looking woman flinched. "What're you doing here?"

"I couldn't sleep." She replied carefully, again dressed in this large shirt of Mokuba. "Mokuba's sleeping like a stone and I thought I could drink a cup of tea or so." Her voice sounded so small and careful that she almost was whispering.

"Go ahead." Kaiba moved out of the way for Serenity to put on the kettle. In elegant tiny steps she crossed the space to the counter and filled the kettle with water and finally, put it on. Seto watched her from the corner of his eyes, acting as if he was reading the paper once again.

"Where's the tea?" Serenity asked casting her hazel eyes at Kaiba, meeting his blue stare. It reminded her of the moon. She couldn't help it. If Kaiba was the night, his eyes would be the shiny bluish glistening full moon at the clear dark night sky.

Seto pointed at the cupboard above her. "Left side."

"What are you doing here? I thought you were going out." With a bit courage she asked the tall brown haired liking a bit small talk.

"First of all, I live here. Second, I _was_ out, what's absolutely none of your business." He snapped at her in order to fulfill his thought about being cruel to her to get her out of his system.

"Sorry." She whispered. "Would you like to have a cup of tea as well?" Politeness bid her to ask while she was taking one of the packages out of the cupboard.

Kaiba shook his head in reply. He could see how nervous she got under his cold behavior and slightly it pained him even. She was taking out a teacup and waited for the water to boil. Clenching his fist he gazed at her with narrowed eyes. He hated himself for liking her and forced himself to look away when his stomach gave a growling noise which was even kind of embarrassing.

"Are you hungry?" She asked when she turned to where the noise was coming from. "I could make you something, if you want me to."

Pure innocence gazed at Kaiba and he felt weak. "You would?"

The girl nodded. "Of course. What do you like?" She opened the fridge to look inside.

"None of Mokuba's experiments and none of the pizza. Disgusting!" He crossed his arms.

"Omelets? There are plenty of eggs in there. Are you and Mokuba trying to rise your potency?" Serenity giggled at her joke but stopped immediately seeing the furrowed brows of Kaiba.

"Well, Mokuba eats a lot of them. I'm sure you've noticed." A smirk appeared on Seto's face when he stood up to get himself a plate. "I take omelet, yes, thank you." He stated and sat down at the table with his plate.

While Serenity was cooking she tried to figure out what Kaiba had meant and soon got it. He didn't mean Mokuba's habit of eating loads of eggs but his potency. Had it been a joke? Or what kind of comment had it been? Serenity didn't get it. Instead she made sure she made a well tasting meal for the older Kaiba brother in order to befriend him. When she was going to live a life with Mokuba, his brother should at least like her.

"He likes to eat cake." Quite a questioning gaze met the sitting form of Seto, not looking at her whilst speaking. "Mokuba. He likes cake, freshly baked. Didn't you know so far? He even bakes it sometimes all alone. He's really good at that. Just cooking's not his strength."

Serenity watched Kaiba talk while he was reading a magazine. How he did that was unbelievable to her but she liked his casual talk, telling her about his brother's likings and disliking. It amazed her how casual Seto could be at all. It had been many years since Battle City where she had last seen him and so far, he hadn't changed much. But being close to him like a family member she almost liked him. There he sat in his plain white t-shirt, gazing interested in his magazine and talking about his brother.

"Here you go." The auburn haired woman said when she served Kaiba's meal. Sitting down opposite him she smiled and drank from her tea.

Kaiba didn't hesitate. He was so hungry after all and actually, he liked omelets quite an awful lot. Taking the fork he began to eat the by the way very well tasting food. He couldn't deny that this awkward situation held something strange. Serenity was cooking for him while they casually held small talk. Like in marriage, Kaiba thought and immediately regretted even thinking of it when his hunger suddenly faded. He stared at the food on his plate.

"Something wrong? Does it taste bad?" The woman dared to ask.

"It's awful." Kaiba stated and shoved the plate away, heading up to leave. "I'm not hungry anymore." He cruelly stated and left the kitchen.

Serenity stared after him. She could have sworn he liked what she had cooked and tasting a bit of her own meal, she couldn't see a reason why to judge it as awful tasting. Something was really wrong with that man! Just when she thought he was normal, he made an act like that. However, she needed to get used to it whatever crazy mind was held in that big brother of her boyfriend.

"So, here we are." Yugi said when he had walked Rebecca to her front porch.

"Yeah, it had been nice of you to walk me home. Thank you very much, Yugi." The blonde smiled at him and fiddled within her small hand bag quite nervously.

"Welcome." He pushed his hands deeper in his coat pockets. It was cold and the night air hit his skin like needles but he didn't mind.

"Well…" She said and took a deep breath gazing up with her beautiful green eyes at the young man. "You could come inside and have a coffee to warm you up before you go." She offered with another sweet smile.

"No, thank you. I don't want to bother you." He chuckled slightly.

"You wouldn't." Finally grabbing hold of her keys she shook her head reassuringly.

"Thanks, but I'll go home considering the time now." It was far after midnight and Yugi was tired, after all.

"Okay. Will I be seeing you tomorrow?" She asked with hope in her eyes.

"Yeah. Rainmen's?"

The blonde nodded and smiled while Yugi was gazing at her pretty face. She loved those big violet eyes of his. Yugi had been really nice that evening and she felt her heart rate rise being with him. Leaning quickly closer she put her usual goodnight kiss on his cheek before she gazed into his soft big eyes. It was do or die time and she bent forward once more, kissing his lips. Carefully she had placed her soft lips against his and was lucky to find him replying to her lips' request.

Yugi felt his face flush and the heat rise within himself. He tenderly wrapped his arms around her slim waist and touched her back ever so lightly. Though the cool night breeze had made his lips quite rough, it didn't bother him to open his mouth slightly, begging with his tongue for entry between those carefully colored pink lips. The girl willingly accepted what was waiting for her and hung her arms around the young man's neck. Totally flushed she was on cloud number nine when Yugi suddenly pulled away.

"I'm…" Nervously Yugi avoided to look into the girl's eyes. "I'm sorry, Rebecca, but I can't do this."

"But you did. You wanted it, too." She pouted with a desperate expression in her sweet eyes.

"I know but…" Yugi ran a hand through the blond strands of his hair. "We shouldn't do this. It won't work out."

"But… why?" Rebecca begged with her eyes for an answer. She couldn't believe why Yugi suddenly tried to look for excuses not to be with her. "Don't you like me?"

"I do. Believe me, I do." He sighed thoughtfully and took her small hand in his. "I will be honest, okay, Becky? It won't work out between the two of us because you're too young for me. I like you and all but I really can't be with you. You're just sixteen, Becky."

"That's a lame excuse, Yugi." She wasn't convinced and Yugi smiled sadly. "You're twenty-four and that makes only eight years between us. What are eight years? Between Joey's and Mai's ages are also eight years and they're happy, even though Joey's younger than Mai. And he's a guy and I'm a girl."

"I know but I'm not Joey, nor Mai. I am who I am and you, Rebecca, are too young for me. I'm sorry." The girl suddenly pulled her hand away from his after he had tried to explain.

"I don't believe a single word." She called out to him. "Why don't you admit that you're in love with someone else?"

"What? Why should I? I'm in love with no one and that's the truth. In includes you, too, Becky and I'm sorry for that but I can't change it. Please, don't be mad at me." He begged and hoped for her to understand but it was to expect that she wouldn't. Life had its own rules and even with yet another A diploma Rebecca couldn't afford the higher life experience compared to an eight years older guy.

Rebecca was shaking her head violently and grabbed hold of the door, turning the knob to enter her house with nothing more said. Yugi stared at the closed door for a while before he finally realized that she had gone. Sighing and slightly mad at himself he turned to walk home. Again he pushed his hands deep down into his coat pocket and cursed whilst walking.

Why was he so stupid? He had rejected the probably most beautiful girl in Domino and now she was really mad at him, he supposed. Why couldn't he just let it happen, even if he wasn't in love with her. Maybe it would have come in time. But no, he just couldn't do that. He had been honest and had told her why he couldn't be with her. He hadn't lied. Not even when he said he wasn't in love with someone else. He wasn't in love with Tea!

Yugi could admit, he had feelings for Tea but was it love? He couldn't get Kaiba's words out of his mind, that was for sure. When he had heard them, he didn't know what to say or to do. He had no right to accuse Tea for something, she wasn't his girlfriend. But she was his friend and she had been lying to him. That would certainly give him the right to be mad at her but it didn't change the fact that he felt awful thinking for his best friend having spent a night with Kaiba.

Yugi even could understand if Tea felt bad about what had happened between her and Kaiba. If it had been just because they were drunk and she thought of it as a mistake, then she certainly even felt embarrassed. Though there was no need in lying to Yugi. Didn't she trust him? Wasn't she trusting him enough to tell him? However, something else was also making Yugi highly confused. What it Tea didn't feel about her night with Kaiba as a mistake? What if she was in love with him? Kaiba wasn't. So far Yugi knew. But what about Tea?

Still, thinking of Tea being possibly in love with Kaiba made Yugi feel sad. Even angry but that was secondary. Simply sad he was, considering that Tea probably preferred even Kaiba to Yugi, not just Yami. If only he would be Yami. But he wasn't. He was Yugi, Tea's best friend who she obviously didn't trust. She had been lying and Yugi was mad at her. Final.

Serenity climbed silently back into bed where Mokuba was lying peacefully asleep. She had cleaned the kitchen a bit after cooking for Seto and had drunk her tea before she finally felt tired enough to join her boyfriend. Carefully she tried not to wake him up when she laid down beside him but his hand immediately reached out to wrap itself around her. Sleepily snuggling up close the young man blinked.

"Where have you been?" He asked in a sleep filled raspy voice.

"Downstairs. I couldn't sleep and drank some tea." Serenity replied stroking across his hand softly. "I met your brother. He's some really weird guy."

Mentioning the word weird in connection with Mokuba's big brother made him wider awake than Serenity had meant to with her words.

"Why do you think he's weird?"

The woman sighed. "When I came down he was quite unfriendly but I didn't mind, really. He seemed hungry and I offered to make him something, what I did in the end after he had accepted my offer. He ate a few, then shoved it away, mentioning that it tasted 'awful', and left. If you don't call that weird, what else!"

"Hm… and? Did it taste 'awful'?" Mokuba grinned not believing that his brother was that unfriendly.

Serenity gazed at her boyfriend quite madly but her gaze softened. "I don't think it matters in the end. I've made the effort to cook in the middle of the night and he could at least be polite enough not to say, it tasted awful."

"Politeness may not be his strength."

The auburn haired sighed. "Your brother simply can't stand me, that's it."

"Bullshit. Maybe he was just tired." Mokuba could be at least as stubborn as his brother when it came to defending him.

"If you say so." Serenity yawned and snuggled closer to Mokuba. At the moment she couldn't care less about Kaiba's reasons for being such a bastard. She finally was tired and fell asleep soon after.

Tea fell in her bed dead tired and yet she couldn't stop her thoughts drifting to the latest events. Kaiba. He refused talking to her and that was her lowest problem. That arrogant and selfish human being had the most stubborn nature Tea had ever met. Did he really think she wanted to beg him to be with her? He couldn't be any more wrong. But still, Tea knew they couldn't avoid talking with each other about what had happened. It might sound stupid but the whole 'thing' hurt her honor and with that she couldn't live.

But that wasn't her biggest problem, now. Yugi knew about what had truly happened after hearing Kaiba's word. But he had ignored her. He had acted totally strange. He hadn't said a single word to the woman afterwards. Instead he clung to Rebecca as if he was suddenly on cloud number nine. Tea had disappointed Yugi. She had lied to him but acting as if he didn't even care was evidence enough that he wasn't interested in her life, anyway.

Tea sighed, staring at the dark ceiling. Why was life such a mess?

Yawning she knew what she had to do. She was to face her mistakes and make it up. She needed to talk to Yugi and apologize for lying to him. And then she needed to talk to Kaiba in order to rescue the last bit of remaining honor she had - if Kaiba wanted to or not.

* * *

(A/N: I need to heat it up again, what do you think? Maybe a little bit of Yugi and Kaiba punching each other? LOL  
I love you for your reviews - keep them coming!) 


	5. Shattered Hope

**Delicate** by Sangha

Hope you still like it!

* * *

**Chapter 5 – Shattered Hope**

Kaiba's hand reached out to switch off his alarm clock. He groaned and wiped a hand across his face. He was lying on his bed and was still dressed. Remembering last night he knew why. He had come into his bedroom after leaving Serenity Wheeler in the kitchen and threw himself on the bed. Switching on his TV he tried to watch some silly action movie but his mind kept turning back to thoughts of the young auburn haired woman until he must have fallen asleep.

Serenity and he had met in his kitchen and suddenly a feeling of anger overcame him and he needed to get away from her. Anger because he was in turmoil within himself. Why couldn't he just stop these feelings towards his younger brother's girlfriend? This had to end soon. Kaiba sat up in bed and thought about how irritating last night's dream had been. It wouldn't help, so far he was sure.

The dream

_Seto and Serenity were walking down the aisle and he gave her a smile full of love and devotion. She returned it, looking ever so beautiful within her bridal dress. Music was playing and in the audience Joey was waving at his sister, smiling proudly._

Kaiba should have guessed that it couldn't be real. Why would Wheeler smile proudly when Seto was walking with her down the aisle? But as it had been a dream Kaiba didn't realize.

_Suddenly Seto stopped midway and couldn't walk on. As much as he tried he couldn't go further but the young woman did. Seto called out her name but no sound came out, no word was released through his lips. Joey kept on waving to his sister while she was going further until she approached the altar, where indeed Mokuba was waiting for her._

_The penny dropped with Kaiba and his eyes narrowed. Joey was waving now at the two of them. Mokuba smiled happily waving back at him, and then he smiled at Seto and the rest of the audience till his gaze stopped at his bride who shone with love for the younger Kaiba. Seto's look shifted helplessly around._

_Mai was winking at him as if she wanted to tell him 'you proud big brother'. Tea was crying like a baby and gazed with her two big blue eyes upon the tall brown haired as if to beg him 'marry me, marry me'. Tristan Taylor was clapping Mokuba's back and giving him the thumps up. _

_But Kaiba – he couldn't move, couldn't speak, couldn't do anything at all but to watch how his cute little brother got married to Serenity. In the middle of the wedding, during the ceremony even, that imitation of Yugi calling himself a pharaoh suddenly stood beside Seto and clapped his back. Startled the tall man turned to gaze at the smaller guy with that upside down pyramid around his neck._

'_Seto, this is your fate.' He said in his most advising tone. 'You have to accept it.' _

_These words were too familiar to Kaiba to really care about them but Yugi wasn't finished. _

'_You only would have been second best. You have always been second best.'_

_Serenity was waving at Kaiba who was suddenly standing in an arena and the side opposite him was empty. People were everywhere cheering and clapping their hands when suddenly Pegasus appeared, announcing the winner of the championship. It was Yugi and next to him stood little Mokuba, still the kid he once had been. He was gazing up at Yugi and smiled happily._

Dream end

"Holy crap!" Seto muttered under his breath when he slowly headed for the bathroom.

What hell of a dream was that? If he believed in analyzing his dreams, he would have gone insane long time ago. Of course, it was crap that Serenity was with Mokuba because Seto would only have been second best but it was true compared to Yugi when it came to play Duel Monsters. Maybe it was similar, though. There was nothing, not even anything; Kaiba could buy to make him beat Yugi. He had tried and not given up but it was senseless.

Certainly there was nothing Seto could have done to make Serenity love him instead of Mokuba. The thought pained. How did he think about his own brother? It was ridiculous, actually. Kaiba hadn't even tried to make Serenity fall for him and that was possibly his only mistake. So what? She was with Mokuba now and that had absolutely nothing to do with being second best. If the fateful day should come and Mokuba would marry Serenity, then be it.

Kaiba chuckled at his reflection in the mirror. How crazy was he? What was he thinking? He was freaking about something that wasn't even relevant so far. Freaking because of a woman. But there was no need, was there? Today was now and he will see what tomorrow brings. He just needed to be strong and tough. That's what he had always been. It was always the best.

Leaving the bathroom Kaiba got dressed and headed downstairs. It was early, too early for Mokuba to stand up on a Sunday morning. That was good. So Kaiba would have enough time to drink a cup of coffee and watch the news on TV before he left. Even on Sundays he found enough work to do in his company and that, he didn't want to miss.

* * *

Successfully Tea had taken her mind off her problems with Yugi or Kaiba. Although she hadn't slept that long, she was ready to start the day and made herself a big breakfast. Freshly baked (former frozen) croissants, a huge glass of chocolate cream and a big cup of cappuccino was what she had eaten after she had showered and dressed herself in the most casual clothing she owned, pink cotton pants and a light green sweater.

During breakfast Tea watched some silly talk show where a woman confessed to her husband that he wasn't the father of their newborn baby daughter.

"That bitch…" The brown haired woman muttered and buttered another half croissant with chocolate cream. It was her fifth now.

Shaking her head still wondering about how cruel that woman was to her husband, Tea walked over to her kitchen counter and switched on the kettle once more for another cup of cappuccino before she sat down again, fastening her gaze at the small television screen. The man was crying by now over the oh so cute looking baby in its mother's hand who tried to apologize. She was telling her husband that she just had a fling; a mistake with the other man and that she only loved her husband.

That was the point where Tea could have vomited her whole breakfast and her face went pale. She wasn't even better than this bitch. Though she loved Yugi, she had had a fling with Kaiba. And it was back, this bad feeling in her stomach concerning her life. The ring of the bell slightly startled her and with an annoyed expression she went to open the door. Confused who might visit her on a Sunday morning she was surprised to find a familiar blond woman waiting in front of her door.

"Mai, hello." Tea said and led the blonde inside.

"Morning Tea." The tall grown woman smiled and winked. "I thought you'd be awake by now. Joey's under the car, again, the third time this week. That stupid thing keeps breaking down every other day!"

"Well," Tea chuckled softly and offered a smile. Mai was something else, that was clear but she could need a woman's talk. "Take a seat then. Would you like a cup of cappuccino?"

"Oh yeah. That would be gross." The blonde grinned and sat down at Tea's kitchen table, stealing one of the remaining croissants. "Were you expecting guests?"

"No, why?" The brown haired asked when she came back with the cappuccino and placed it in front of Mai. Seeing her friend's raised eyebrow towards the used items on the table, she was slightly embarrassed. "Oh you mean… well, no. I was just hungry."

"I see." Mai smiled and softened her voice. As much as she could penetrate with her voice, as soft she could speak if only she wanted to. "Tea, can I ask you something?"

The other woman slowly sat down as well and gazed at her concerned friend. "Well, yeah." She shrugged.

"What's up with you, darling? I'm worried about you and not even because you had a drinking session with Kaiba but most of all, you seem so thoughtful and sad. Last night you've been so quiet all the way home. Something's eating you up, Tea, and I've got no clue what and why." The older woman grabbed hold of Tea's hand and squeezed it comfortingly.

The younger woman just sighed. Would Mai understand what was wrong with her or would she just laugh at her? Mai had always been younger than her age but a woman with great life experience. Being with Joey for more than six years now had grown her to a close friend to Tea and the others. If someone was there Tea could talk to, then it probably was Mai.

"Do you remember what I've told you how I came home that night when I was drinking with Kaiba?" Carefully Tea began to look for a way to explain.

The blonde nodded, so the other woman continued. "I was lying. I didn't take a cab. Kaiba offered to bring me home in his limo." She stated calmly, avoiding Mai's violet-eyed gaze. "I'm sorry about lying to you and I understand if you're angry with me now."

Mai took a breath before she tried to say something. "Oh Tea, I'm not mad at you. Though I can't see why you've been lying about that. What's wrong with Kaiba driving you home?"

Suddenly the brown haired was overwhelmed by her feelings. Mai was so nice and a true friend and didn't even see a reason to be mad at her. But Tea had been so stupid and should have listened to Mai when she asked her to come back to her friends that night. Instead she went with Kaiba.

"That's not everything yet." Tea said with tears that stung behind her eyes and threatened to fall. "We… I asked him to come up with me." That was enough to make her burst out and give in to her tears that rolled freely down her cheeks now.

At first Mai didn't get it but it slowly dawned on her what Tea was trying to say and though her friend was shocked she reached out and took both of Tea's hands in her, stroking them comfortingly.

"It's okay, Tea." Mai tried to soothe her. "What did he do, that cruel bastard?"

Tea gazed up at Mai with a start, locking eyes. "Don't you understand, Mai? He did nothing. I was the one asking him."

"You were drunk, Tea."

"And so was he." The blue-eyed sighed. "I was stupid to do that and I know that. It had been wrong and a big mistake."

"And what does Kaiba think about it?"

"That's where the problem starts. He's obviously convinced that I want to be with him but he thinks of it as a mistake. That was probably the reason why he had left my apartment even before I woke up."

"He's a coward if you ask me." Mai couldn't help her statement.

"Maybe. I was trying to talk to him last night in Rainmen's but he refused. He doesn't want to talk about it. He just ignores it as if nothing's happened at all." Tea's voice slightly rose in anger.

"Wait a second. We all know how stubborn Kaiba is and his reaction doesn't surprise me, really. If you both think of it as a mistake why don't you just leave it? Why do you want to talk with him?" Mai was confused about it but she had once been younger and knew how things could go.

"Because for once, he was coward enough to run away after what's happened and now he's probably even thinking that would have been the only way to escape me! This is humiliating and I feel miserable. What if he even tells someone about this and praises himself even? I can't let that happen and that's why I've tried talking to him. That's when Yugi got to know about it." Tea slightly trembled having to talk about what had caused pain enough so far.

"Slow, Tea. Yugi? Yugi knows? You told him."

"No, I didn't tell him. I was running after Kaiba and tried to convince him that we needed to talk. That's when he mentioned how much fun we had and that it would have been a mistake and that I should get lost as far as I remember. I didn't realize that Yugi was behind me. He had heard everything!" She exclaimed sadly and hung her head low.

Mai gazed at her puzzled. "Stop Tea. Are you embarrassed because Yugi knows? He should be friend enough not to laugh at you. Or was he angry with Kaiba? I don't get it. What did Yugi do?"

"Nothing. That's just it. He did nothing. He was staring at me somehow shocked, but also disappointed and even sad. Then he turned and headed off. He hasn't spoken a single word to me since. Instead he was far more busy with that Hawkins witch." Wiping away the last remaining stains of tears on her cheeks Tea took hold of her cup and sipped at her cappuccino.

Mai sighed thoughtful. "That doesn't make sense. Yugi had always been there for his friends, even if it was that Kaiba asshole. And then he just heads off after he had got to know that his best friend had spent the night with a guy that cruelly ignores you and wants you to get lost. Really, that's weird."

"I need to know why Yugi has been like that yesterday." Two sad blue eyes stared ahead into space.

"Yugi mentioned that he trusted you and Kaiba. Maybe he's just disappointed."

"Me too. And I feel really bad. How come you're not walking out on me, Mai? You could be as much disappointed as Yugi."

"I haven't said I'm not. But hey, everyone makes mistakes and almost everyone makes an experience like you did at some point of their lives." The blonde tried to cheer her friend up.

"Did you?"

"Long time ago. Even before I met Wheeler. Oh hell, I was in your age when I met him and Yugi on that ship to Duelist Kingdom." Mai got almost a dreamy expression on her pretty features but it faded as fast as it had come. "However, Yugi can't ignore you just because you've done a mistake."

"Maybe I'm just not worth being his friend. He has Rebecca and all and seems pretty much occupied with her." Blue eyes suddenly narrowed.

"Are you jealous?" Violet eyes gazed quite seriously.

"Why?" Tea blushed in a deep shade of red.

"God, Tea. Now that makes sense. You like Yugi. Finally, I thought you'd never get it." Mai almost giggled but stopped, seeing Tea's embarrassed expression. "Sorry."

"So what if I do like him?" The younger woman nearly snapped.

"Then it would be great, I think. Though…" Mai laid a thoughtful finger to her lips. "Though I've to say, it complicates the whole situation immensely. You really need to make sure, that Yugi knows how you feel about Kaiba and that he doesn't mean anything to you. Else you're lost."

"Thanks for reminding me." Tea smirked. "That is if he ever talks to me again."

"Oh, he will. I'm sure he will."

"Your word in god's ears."

Mai grinned at the brown haired and shook her head.

"What?" Tea asked. "I don't know what's so funny."

"Sorry Tea, I know it's not but I still can hardly believe it." Mai sipped at her drink before she continued. "You really did spent a night with the ever so unreachable millionaire. I can hardly imagine him being a passionate lover. He seems so… cold."

The other woman sighed and hid her face in her hands with her elbows propped on the table. "Seems like there's more to him than meets the eye." She muttered in her hands, not facing Mai.

"Or the alcohol does wonders."

"Oh I could do without such wonders."

Mai suddenly stopped grinning and turned serious. "Mentioning alcohol, how drunk have you two been? I hope, not too much to forget protection." The elder woman gazed at Tea with an expression of a doctor.

Tea swallowed and tried to remember, then shrugged.

"WHAT?" Mai shrieked upon seeing this. "Does that mean you can't remember?"

"Not exactly." The brown haired tried to avoid the scolding violet gaze of her friend.

"Not exactly? Whether you can or you cannot." She fumed.

"So what if I can't! I guess but I'm not sure. One more reason to talk to Kaiba!" Tea hissed. "I'm certainly not proud of what I did but I can't change how it is."

Mai looked at the heap of sorrow left of a friend and her gaze softened. Tea was right. She must feel awful enough. Still, she needed to make sure, that she wouldn't have an unwanted result of her wild night with Kaiba. Mai felt sorry for Tea. She was obviously in love with Yugi and did the probably worst mistake of her life sleeping with Kaiba who by the way ignored her and denied what had happened. One thing was sure for Mai. Tea needed friends and comfort.

"Oh holy shit!" Mai exclaimed seeing the time. "I'm supposed to cook for Joey! Damn, he's going to kill me! Sorry Tea, but I need to hurry now. If Joey gets hungry and nothing's prepared, the whole world will be in great danger." Mai winked.

"I know." Tea offered a smile. "I wonder how you do that."

"You do? Well, me too." Quickly the blonde dressed up in her winter's coat and hugged Tea for goodbye. "I'm gonna pick you up this evening. Let's see if we can find Yugi, so you can talk with him."

Tea nodded and wished her friend goodbye. Mai could be such an optimist at times. But she was right and the blue-eyed woman was glad to have a friend like her. Her friends had always been the best in her life and she would do anything that Yugi was feeling the same again about her. That would be at least something, even if he was in love with Rebecca.

* * *

Mokuba fiddled nervously at the auburn strands of hair at his girlfriend's head. They were sitting on the sofa in the living room in the evening and watched TV but the raven-haired guy wasn't actually in the mood for sitting at home and doing nothing really. He sighed.

"I'm bored, Serene." He gazed at her with his two big gray-blue eyes. "Let's go out or something."

"I don't know, Mokuba." She replied quite unsure about his idea. "I've got uni tomorrow and I've got to read at least three chapters of a book we're going to discuss. I really rather stay here."

The young man released an unpleased sigh and turned back to the television while the girl rested her head on his chest. Mokuba let one of his toes circle in nervousness and thought about a way to convince the woman on his side when suddenly the door went open and his big brother strolled in with an unreadable expression of nothingness.

"Hey Seto." Mokuba immediately turned his attention from the TV to his brother. "Where've you been?" Ha asked casually.

"Work." The brown haired man answered and put his file case on the table. Then he pulled out his cell phone and switched it off placing it on the case in front of him.

"Work? It's Sunday, Seto." The younger Kaiba gave a short chuckle.

"So?" Seto knew what Mokuba was on about but he didn't really care and sat down on a chair, opening a magazine he had fished out of his file case.

"It's god's free day!" Mokuba exclaimed not understanding his brother's attitude, even after he should be used to him working on Sundays after so long time.

"But I'm not god." The elder replied and placed his magazine in front of the table, circling an advertisement with a biro from the table.

"Although you'd like to be." Mokuba grinned and received a sharp glare from his brother. Usually the raven-haired didn't go that far as to annoy his brother with sharp comments like these but he was bored and Seto knew, he didn't mean to insult him.

"Why are you at home at all? Usually I rarely get to see you on Sundays." Kaiba stated with a smirk but kept his gaze down on the magazine.

"Because my girlfriend doesn't want to go out." The younger brother replied with a glance down at his girlfriend.

Serenity wasn't prepared with the sudden look she got from the piercing cold blue eyes of Seto. He slowly raised an eyebrow at her while the woman widened her hazel eyes before she glared at Mokuba.

"Why don't you want to?" Kaiba asked with a lopsided smirk and kept his gaze fastened on the face of Serenity who gazed at him surprised and caught off guard.

"I've got uni tomorrow and need to study. I've to get up early and…" Her eyes shifted from the older Kaiba to the younger and back. "I just don't know if it's a good idea to go out today."

Seto darted his eyes back down at his magazine, not caring to reply anything. She seemed to be a smart woman after all and very grounded but he kept his thoughts inside. There was no need to compliment her. It wasn't his nature.

"Oh c'mon, Serenity." Mokuba started to beg her, thinking he had his brother on his side. "We don't have to stay out long and I will let you read your book afterwards and I swear I won't bother you during your study. Pleeeaaaseee."

Though Seto didn't gaze up at Mokuba he knew how he must have been looking like. He still could be the adorable sweet kid he used to be. That's probably why the girls fell for him every other day. Just like Serenity. She was no exception and just like any other girl.

Serenity sighed inwardly. "Fine. But not that long." She voiced out her condition and immediately Mokuba's face lit up in excitement.

"Great!" He exclaimed standing up with a start. "I'll just get changed." Instead of leaving he gazed down at his girlfriend who didn't move so far. "Aren't you going to get changed?"

Serenity looked up at the man in front of her with an astonished expression. "No, why?" Her hazel eyes darted down at herself in utter confusion. She was clad in blue jeans and a pink top to which she was wearing a suiting pink sweat jacket. "Something wrong with my clothing?"

"No, you're right." Mokuba smiled. "You're beautiful as you are." Leaning down he quickly planted a kiss on her lips before he ran out of the room, leaving Serenity to stare after him.

Seto could have grinned at his brother's behavior. Just in time Mokuba had saved his head to get bitten off. Maybe he was used to overdressed young women but he had said himself, that he liked Serenity dressing herself discretely. Hopefully he wouldn't change his opinion. Serenity did seem to have her doubts.

Serenity's gaze shifted from the door to the reading Kaiba. He hadn't said a single word and seemed not to care about what Mokuba had said. The woman felt slightly embarrassed. Of course she had noticed the way Mokuba was wondering, even if he was being sweet as ever. At least Seto wasn't commenting this. That was the last thing she needed right now.

"What are you staring?" Kaiba voiced out but kept to continue with reading. If he actually did.

"Nothing." Immediately Serenity forced her eyes on the television screen. She couldn't help the blush that was rising on her cheeks. Damn that Kaiba. He had caught her staring at him.

Seto could see from out of the corner of his blue eyes that Serenity blushed. She felt probably embarrassed and hell, he was glad about it. Somehow he felt good knowing he had an affection on her that resulted in such an adorable reaction. Almost a smile rose on Seto's usually sharp features without him being aware but it faded quickly when the door opened and Mokuba strolled in.

"I'm ready, Serene. We gotta go if you're ready."

Obviously Mokuba had found a reason to dress up in his newest pair of blue jeans from another unknown brand to the woman and a dark blue shirt combined with a black vest that made him look like a Latino. Gladly he couldn't see the raised eyebrow of his girlfriend when she slowly headed to catch up with her boyfriend. The raven-haired man grabbed hold of Serenity's small hand and yelled a goodbye to his brother before they left together.

Maybe not exactly the perfect match, after all. Seto had his doubts. If only they became true. But shaking his head he refused thinking like that of his brother's choice of a woman. He loved her. She loved him. Seto shouldn't even care, not to mention think such bad thoughts. Switching off the TV he leant back in his chair and read his magazine.

* * *

When Mai and Tea entered Rainmen's the guys were sitting at a table and chatting with their beer bottles in hand, not caring to use glasses with no women around. Tristan, Joey, Yugi and even Bakura who hadn't shown up for a long time were obviously having a good guy's night out.

"I'd really like to have a Mitsubishi Spider. That car's cool." The blond haired beamed at his friends and leant backwards with a dreamy expression.

"Yeah and Mai's going to shot you if you'd gamble away your money for a car." Tristan snickered.

"Probably but I hope my sister's going to marry Mokuba, so he will buy me a brand new sports car." Joey grinned and joined in when his friends started to laugh.

"So that's what your sister's good for, huh?" Mai smirked and all four of the guys sat up straight with a start. The woman instead laughed her famous laugh and was highly amused by her male friends. "Go on, guys and shift. Two ladies are here to get a seat."

"What time is it?" Tristan asked more himself and gazed down at his own wristwatch. "I gotta go anyway. I've got a date with the sweet chick from yesterday."

"Oh yeah, really?" Joey grinned when he stood up in order to let Tristan change seats with Mai. "What was her name?"

"Miho." Tristan smugly replied and waved quite silly at his friends for goodbye before he finally left, still riding a bike instead of driving a car.

Bakura smiled immediately seeing Tea, his former girlfriend. "Hi Tea, haven't seen you in a long time." He jumped to stand up and offer the woman his hand to shake. He couldn't do anything else anyway as he was squeezed between Yugi and the wall.

Yugi stood up and sat at the head of the table on a chair, giving Tea space to sit next to Bakura who smiled genuinely. The Duel Monsters champion rested his head on his palm and propped his elbow on the table, gazing into space. Of course he knew Tea wouldn't want to sit next to Bakura but it should be some sort of punishment giving her no choice..

Tea smiled at Bakura and nodded though she wasn't in the mood for talking about how long has it been since she had last seen her former boyfriend. Instead she quickly decided to change the topic.

"So Tristan has a girlfriend now?"

"Not really. But he has a date." Joey replied to her question.

"One step at a time." Bakura mentioned in his timid voice.

"But without me there wouldn't have been one step at all." Joey beamed proudly.

"How come?" Tea quickly asked and was glad for once that her blond friend was telling a quite long tale now. As long as she wasn't alone with Yugi, there was no possibility to talk with him and Bakura, he really didn't need to get to know something accidentally. What Tea needed was time.

Not very much later a tall raven-haired man entered Rainmen's with his beautiful girlfriend at his hand. The way to the place where her brother was sitting and talking with friends wasn't that far but it took them both quite a while to arrive there. The reason was obviously Mokuba's popularity in the club. Every now and then they both needed to stop for another mate of the nineteen year old Kaiba, many of them were girls.

"Hi Mokuba." This time it was slim build pretty one with long dark brown hair and dark brown matching eyes.

"Hey Jodie, how are you?" He replied sending a smile.

"I've seen better days, actually. You were supposed to call me." She pouted at him before she let her eyes dismissively wander over Serenity.

"Oh sorry, I was busy at the company. You know, we had a really bad crash down of all our computers and my brother wouldn't let me go home for almost a week." Mokuba was a good actor if he wanted to save his neck from any claws.

"Yeah, it's okay." Jodie said.

"Sorry, I gotta go, Jodie. Give your brother my greetings." The young man pulled at Serenity's hand and quickly left the beauty with the dark brown hair.

"Who was she?" Serenity asked. She hadn't missed that Mokuba hadn't introduced her to his friend.

"Jodie's brother was at College with me. He's a friend." He explained while they were heading through the crowds of people.

"And what is she?" The woman didn't forget to put the right tone to her sentence, which made Mokuba stop immediately and turn around to face her.

"Past." He replied carefully with a cute pouting mouth and big puppy eyes.

"I do hope so." She said with raised eyebrows, then smiled.

Approaching the rest of the clique Joey jumped up to hug his sister, finally ending his fairy tale about him saving Tristan's love life. After the usual hellos Mokuba smiled quite nervously.

"Serene, I'd like to go over there for a while." He pointed with his thumb at a group of young guys in his age. "Are you coming along?"

"No, I'll stay here. You go and talk your guy's stuff!" She grinned and shoved him playfully away from her. With another adorable smile he left.

"Hey Bakura, can you play pool?"

Almost everyone rolled their eyes when Joey asked the famous question. Bakura had no clue what was in store for him tonight. Since Joey had an addiction to pool billiard no one was save to get challenged. And so was minutes later Bakura trying his luck.

Realizing that the three woman were alone with Yugi now, Mai kicked Serenity softly at her shin.

"Hey sister in law, you like to watch?" Mai cocked her head at the starting pool game and pulled strange faces at Serenity who didn't know if she should do what Mai wanted or better call a doctor for her.

Serenity decided to obey and followed her to the pool table where Mai leant close to her. "Yugi and Tea need to talk about something. Sorry, I couldn't possibly tell over there." She whispered.

"Oh." The auburn haired nodded. "Are they okay?"

Mai nodded. "Yeah, sure. But I'd like to ask you something else. Is it really okay for you that your boyfriend's occupied with someone else all the time?"

"What do you mean?" Innocently two hazel eyes tried to act and stared up at the taller woman. But seeing the look the older woman gave her, she sighed and started to explain how she was feeling about the situation with Mokuba.

Meanwhile hidden in between crowds of young people there was a blond girl standing and watching them. Rebecca had been here all evening and was waiting for Yugi. She hadn't the courage to go over to him when the other three men had been around, nor when even Mai and Tea joined. The right time just didn't seem to come but she needed to talk to him.

Rebecca's eyes narrowed realizing that Yugi was left with only Tea sitting next to him. Was that her chance?

"Yugi, I need to talk to you." Tea said and gazed into the two big violet eyes, which looked back at her with raised brows. Yugi shrugged. "It's about Kaiba and what you've heard yesterday."

Yugi couldn't help the deep breath he obviously drew in and back out. "What's there to talk?"

"I'm sorry I was lying about how I came home that before night. I should have told you. But about what Kaiba had said, I'm not in love with him, don't think that."

"Why are you telling me this, Tea?" Yugi really didn't need further details about what had happened that night. He could pretty much imagine what was enough already to tear at his heart. "I really don't care if you're in love with Kaiba or not. I just thought you were my friend and the only thing you've done wrong is that you've been lying to me."

An excuse, Yugi knew, but that was the only thing he could accuse her for as the friend she was, nothing more or less.

Tea was surprised and shocked that Yugi said he didn't care but she needed to convince him anyway. "I'm sorry I was lying to you but I was ashamed and embarrassed"

"That's okay." The young man cut her off. "I accept your apology for lying to me."

Tea's two big blue eyes stared at her friend for a while and wondered that he was forgiving her so quickly. Still, it felt as if he really didn't care about her.

"Thank you, Yugi. What has happened between me and Kaiba was all a huge mistake and"

"Yugi." A female voice suddenly rang above them.

Again the blue-eyed woman was cut off. This time by Rebecca Hawkins who gazed down at the young man with a sad expression. Yugi looked up at the blonde quite puzzled.

"Yugi, can I have a word with you?"

"It's not a really good time right now, Rebecca." He voiced out slowly with a careful expression.

Immediately the girl turned desperate. "But I really need to talk to you. Yugi, please. It won't take long but it's important." She begged.

Yugi sighed and sent an apologizing look at his best friend. "Sorry Tea, I'll be back in a minute." With that said he stood up and walked off in Rebecca's tow.

The blond girl stopped at a place where she could talk to Yugi without getting interrupted by his or her friends. Standing in front of him she looked up into his face with two big sad green eyes. Rebecca still couldn't believe Yugi rejected her.

"About yesterday. I understand if you think it's all gone too quick when I kissed you. Really, I might give you time if you need it. You can't possibly have meant it when you said that it won't work out between us." She started to find reasons but Yugi sighed, even sadly.

"Rebecca, I don't need time. I've meant what I said. You are a really pretty girl though and there are plenty of other guys who would give the world to be with you." He tried to explain.

"But I don't want them!" She whined. "I want you!"

Yugi smiled with sympathy. "I know but I can't be with you. I'm not in love with you and it wouldn't be right if we got together though."

"But I love you!" Her green eyes filled with tears. "Isn't that enough?"

"I suppose it isn't." Yugi shook sadly his head. "Not for me. I'm sorry."

The young man reached out to lift the girl's chin when her head hung low suddenly and burning tears fell down her pretty face.

"I want to be your friend, though. You are one of my best friends for years and I care about you a lot. I don't want you to be sad but I can't be with you and you have to accept that. All I can offer to you is friendship. That is if you still want it?"

Rebecca nodded sadly. "Of course I still want you to be my friend." She said very sure about it. "Is there really no chance that maybe sometime, if I wait long enough…." She stopped seeing Yugi shaking his head.

When she hung her head low again the young man reached out and pulled her close to him. Taking the girl in a friendly embrace he gently stroked her back when she was crying in his chest.

"I'm sorry, Becky." He whispered soothingly and kissed her head as a friend.

Tea watched the scenario between Yugi and Rebecca and felt the anger and disappointment rising in her again. Of course she had no clue what they were talking about but it was enough what she saw. Rebecca was in a tight embrace of Yugi and he even kissed her on top of her head. Tea felt sick and in inner self clenched. Why did she even want to talk to Yugi at all? It was senseless, obviously. He had already forgiven her and didn't see a reason to care for anything else.

The brown haired woman stood up and walked over to Mai and Serenity. There was no need to stay here any longer and risking to do anything stupid again. She would go home where she could be alone and feel sorry for herself.

"I'm heading home, Mai."

"What? Why?" The blonde stared at her friend in disbelief. "You can't go. Have you been talking to Yugi yet?"

"Yes, I'm gonna tell you tomorrow, okay? I'm really not in the mood right now." Tea smiled apologetically.

"Okay." Mai replied reluctantly but she understood when her friend wasn't in the mood for talking right now. Sensing that Tea's talk with Yugi didn't go very smooth was not difficult, though she needed to know what had happened. Hopefully not the worst, Yugi rejecting Tea if she told him her true feelings. But Mai didn't want to jump into conclusions. "How will you come home?"

"I'll call a cab." The blue eyes answered. "Really, I promise."

Mai nodded. She knew Tea wasn't drunk this time and trusted her. After Tea had bid Serenity and the two pool-playing guys goodnight she left the club. She hadn't told them the truth about her leaving. She had just told them she was tired.

Serenity gave Mai a puzzled expression about Tea but Mai simply shook her head. "Don't ask. I know as much as you. Anyway, where were we? You were tell me that you're jealous!"

"I didn't say that!" The younger woman exclaimed in denial. She had told Mai that she wasn't always comfortable with Mokuba having had quite a past with girls in his young age but she trusted him nevertheless.

"Okay, okay." Mai held up hands in defeat. "How many girlfriends has he had so far actually? I mean, I've seen him here with many people, most of them girls but I can't tell how many of them he had brought home." She laid two fingers to her chin quite funnily. "Maybe you could ask Kaiba!"

Serenity rolled her eyes. "Mokuba says he had quite a few but nothing serious since I came along."

"How sweet!" Mai exclaimed.

"It doesn't matter that much anyway. I know he loves me and I trust him. Even though we are quite different." The smaller woman mentioned.

"How do you mean that, now?" The blonde furrowed her brows. "Do you mean the age gap?"

"Not just that. That's the slightest problem. I mean that I could stay at home and have some quality time while Mokuba would rather go out and party. Still, this isn't a problem. I like to go out, too. But not every day. It just seems to me that he could do with going out every night." The hazel eyed tried to explain.

"I see. I often let Joey go out alone when I wasn't in the mood."

"Yeah, that would be a solution. I just guess he wouldn't like that very much. He'd rather have me coming along." Serenity sighed. "Anyway, it's not that much of a problem, after all."

"Hopefully."

Serenity nodded, more to reassure herself than her older friend. It appeared that Mokuba did come back to join them and therefore, they should take their talk to another time. Smiling the younger woman received a kiss from her boyfriend when he strolled back to them in good moods.

"I'm thirsty, what about you?" The raven-haired guy asked. "I'll go to get some drinks."

"Could you bring me a water?" His girlfriend asked.

"Sure thing, Mai?"

"Me too. Thank you, Mokuba." She replied and Mokuba headed off to the bar.

The club was still full of people but Mokuba was lucky to find space at the bar. He ordered the two glasses of water and a soda for himself and waited until the bartender finally brought the drinks and the raven-haired guy paid. He was about to take the ordered drinks in his hands when he recognized a familiar blonde head sitting near with her head hanging low. He bent across the bar in order to make her see him but she seemed to be spaced off.

"Hey, hello." Mokuba waved a hand and sent a cute smile to the slowly turning head of Rebecca.

"Hi Mokuba." She said low and forced a smile, failing miserably in the attempt to look happy.

"What's up with you? You're looking like someone's died." He mentioned when he closed the remaining gap between them.

"Maybe I'm the one who died." Rebecca replied shrugging. "But I don't want to bother you."

"You wouldn't bother me. You are my friend, aren't you?"

The blonde gazed up at the two friendly blue-gray shining eyes and thought about his words before she finally answered. "Yeah. Yeah, you are." Then she even smiled at the tall young man. "Maybe I never told you but I'm glad you are my friend."

"Welcome." True that she never told him before but even now it wasn't too late. It meant more to him than she could have ever known that very moment.

"But I don't want to waste your time right now. Your girlfriend's probably waiting for you, Mokuba. I'll go and let me drive back home. I've to get up early tomorrow." The blonde said and stood up. She had meant what she had said and would leave. It was to no use to sit here and hang her head. It wouldn't change anything.

"Okay, but you can call me anytime, if… you know… if you want to talk or so. I'll be there." The young man said almost hoping she would do so. If there was something bothering her, he would give the world for her turning to him.

"Thank you." Rebecca smiled nodding. "Good night."

"Good night." Mokuba watched the girl disappear before he finally took the drinks and walked back to Serenity and Mai who were joined by Yugi now.

Thankfully receiving their water the women smiled and kept talking. Mokuba, instead, was with Rebecca in his thoughts. What could possibly bother her that much? Wasn't she happy? She had always been happy even if she wasn't with Yugi, her one and only crush. That man could call himself lucky. The girl was ignoring all kinds of boys and even men just for that miniature of a man calling himself Duel Monsters champion. Maybe it was that what Rebecca made so interested in him. Mokuba could ask Seto for advice and become also champion. Very funny, if even Seto hadn't been able to beat Yugi so far and he didn't even try anymore. But what was Mokuba thinking? He was with Serenity now and very happy by the way.

"Mokuba?" Suddenly Serenity's voice distraught him from his thoughts. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah sure." Sure he wasn't, that was the only sure thing.

(A/N: Okay, this had been pretty few Seto and loads and loads of Tea. A quite long chapter by the way and I'm really tired now. I guess I finally reach the direction where the whole thing should lead to. At the moment it's quite boring but I promise the next chapter will be more interesting again!)


	6. Feelings Turned Upside Down

Next chapter with loads of Kaiba – both of them! **

* * *

Chapter 6 – Feelings Turned Upside Down**

Monday.

Mokuba hated Mondays. The week had just begun and he had to be at work again. Luckily he wasn't going to school anymore after he graduated college. There was no need to attend any university after Seto had taught him enough to be vice president of their company. But work was also hard enough, working at least whole eight hours a day, but it was better than to have to do homework!

Finishing work Mokuba drove to pick up Serenity and after they had grabbed something to eat on their way, they were now chilling out in Mokuba's room at home. He had left Rainmen's yesterday short time after his conversation with Rebecca because Serenity got slightly nervous about reading her three chapters for the literature course and begged the young man to go home. She was very serious about what she did and even if Mokuba was as well, he was a bit more loosened up at times like these.

The raven-haired young man decided it was time to finally have some fun with his girlfriend and crawled along his bed until he reached the body he longed to touch. He kissed along the woman's jaw and let his hand wander underneath the top she was wearing. Lying on her back she smiled at his attempt and drew her arm around his neck and kissed around his ear when suddenly the guy's cell phone started ringing.

Mokuba groaned and decided to ignore it. Pleased when it finally stopped he grinned and went on with his task at hand but the cell phone started ringing again.

"Shouldn't you get it?" Serenity asked smiling at him who was ignoring the thing.

"No, it's probably just my brother who wants to tell me that I've forgotten something or so. No, no. He can do that himself whatever it is."

Serenity chuckled. "And if it isn't your brother? Maybe it's Ryan who's desperately trying to tell you that your ordered new car has finally arrived…"

Mokuba was waiting for that call for about two weeks now after he had ordered another brand new car. The older one he had been driving for more than one year now and he longed to have a new one. Guys were all the same.

"Let's take a look." He reached over to his jacket and pulled out his mobile. "Hm… unknown caller."

Serenity shrugged. "Wouldn't that make sense?"

"I don't know. At least it's not my brother or anything concerning Kaiba Corporation." Pressing the answer button he finally answered the call.

"_Mokuba_?" A voice rang into his ears that were all too familiar to him and the young man jumped up from the bed.

"Yeah." He replied in a concerned tone. "What's wrong?"

"_You said I could call you whenever I needed someone to talk to. I was thinking that now would be the time to do so but if you're busy_"

"I'm not." He added quickly and walked over to the window feeling slightly nervous under Serenity's look. "No problem. What is it?"

"_Actually, I don't want to talk about it on the phone. I thought maybe you'd like to come over and we could talk a little at my place. I really could do with a friend right now_."

"Yeah sure, that would be possible." A friend in help was certainly more important than his girlfriend. He could take care of Serenity later.

"_Really? If it's not a good time right now"_

"No, it's okay. Really." Mokuba ran a hand through his long back hair and nodded to himself. "Right now?"

"_Yeah, I'll be at home and wait for you_." Rebecca replied. "_Thank you, Mokuba_."

"Welcome, no problem. Really, it isn't. See you then."

After he had ended the call he stared out of the window and knew well that Serenity was gazing at him with an expression full of unanswered questions.

"What's wrong?" She asked.

"Would you be okay alone for a while? I need to go over to a friend who needs help." He gazed at the auburn-haired woman with a concerned expression.

"Yeah, of course." She stated having no doubts that a friend in help was something that shouldn't be ignored. "I've got to read another book anyway."

"Great. Thanks a lot, darling." He quickly closed the gap between them and kissed Serenity's lips before he grabbed his leather jacket and headed out of the room.

Serenity wondered. She hadn't missed that Mokuba hadn't said who his friend was but there was always the possibility that his friend didn't want someone to know anything at all. Mokuba had to decide that himself what he told her and she believed in him making the right decision. She trusted her boyfriend. Sighing she grabbed her book and opened the first page.

* * *

Rebecca sighed on the other side of town sitting on her bed. She had thought about the whole thing with Yugi for a long time and it was slowly driving her insane. She needed someone to talk to. Mokuba wasn't the first person in her mind but the only real possibility. She had only few friends at school. Most of the boys and girls there couldn't get along with her because she simply was too smart for them. Then there were many girls envying her because all the boys wanted to date her. Certainly she couldn't talk to one of the boys, too. They were too self obsessed.

Then there was Mokuba. He had been a friend to her all the time, even though at first he made a few attempts to date her as well. But he accepted that he was out of count and grew to a close friend, other than many of the boys who either didn't want to get it or didn't want to just befriend with her. The younger Kaiba had offered her once again an ear to listen to whatever problems she was having.

Hearing a noise she looked out of the window to see the red sports car of Mokuba in the driveway and walked downstairs to open the front door. He was about to knock when the door got opened and two sad light green eyes gazed up at the tall guy.

"Hey."

"Hey, come in. Thanks for coming that quickly. I'm sorry to bother you but there's no one else that I could talk to." She explained whilst leading him inside.

"Like I said no problem. You don't bother me." Taking off his shoes he replied.

"Won't your girlfriend be mad at me, stealing you from her?" The blonde asked quite seriously.

"No, that's absolutely okay for her." He lied.

"I'm going to make us coffee. Is that okay with you?"

Mokuba nodded and followed the blond girl. There was no need telling her that Serenity was unknown to his whereabouts, actually. It was far more important why his younger friend was in need to talk to someone so desperately. He was very concerned about her.

* * *

Seto Kaiba was pleased with his day so far. It was the best day since he had got to know about Mokuba's new girlfriend and even though he couldn't get her out of his system, work had done wonders with at least a good try to take his mind off the woman and the whole bunch of problems following. So he had again thought of her but forced his mind not to do so. Thanks to Kaiba Corporation he was happy with little success. Very positive. He was glad he would always have his company, the second best thing in his life after his brother, of course.

Sighing contently Kaiba walked into his mansion and after grabbing the received mail walked into his living room. There he threw the mail on his sofa table and loosened his tie like some kind of tradition. Grabbing the remote he let himself fall down on the sofa and leant back. The house was quiet so far and he actually wondered where his brother might be. He had left the company two hours earlier than Seto and should be at home. If he wasn't, then fine with the tall brown haired.

Switching on the TV Kaiba tried to find some news but as he didn't found any, he grabbed his heap of mail and opened the few bills, as usual. His eyes shifted to look upwards when suddenly the door to the kitchen opened and a certain woman with auburn colored hair walked in with a cup of hot steaming liquid in her hands.

"Oh…" Serenity said and blinked, not expecting Seto Kaiba suddenly sitting in the living room. "Hello." She added quite stupidly and broke their sudden lock of eyes.

Seto couldn't help the glare he sent her at first before he smirked. "Yeah, great. Oh."

The woman fought against herself telling him how stupid he was and sat down next to him. In her psychology course she had learnt other ways to get to people and she would try with Kaiba. He was just perfect. If he would already see a psychiatrist? The auburn-haired put down her cup at the table and stared ahead at the television, ignoring the tall grown man.

"Where's Mokuba?" He asked in a dull tone and glared at Serenity. What did she do here anyway without him? Why was she sitting down next to him? What the hell was on her mind? He had enough to do getting her out of his mind. This was the last thing he needed right now.

"He's gone to a friend who needed his help with something. He said I should wait here." Serenity's reply rang in such a soft tone that it nearly made the CEO suspicious but he shrugged.

"He'll better be back soon." Seto stated sternly and gazed at the TV screen. He could do this and just ignore her. He would prove himself once more.

Silence washed over both of them for a while. Kaiba read his mail and tried to control his heart rate with a mental mantra. Concentration nearly left him being so close to her. Serenity instead was in a battle with herself. One certain question was in her mind but would she have the courage to ask Kaiba? The worst that could happen was that he might humiliate her wand walk off. Do or die?

"Can I ask you something?"

Kaiba's gaze shifted to look at her. He hadn't seen that coming. Just when he felt quite okay with himself and her around she dared to say something. Strange was, Seto didn't even glare at her.

"What is it?" The slightly nerved tone in his voice wasn't unusual so far.

"Why don't you like me?" Her big hazel eyes met with his blue ones and she tried to control her trembling fingers by pushing them beneath her thighs.

Kaiba stared at her for a moment before he tore his eyes away and with yet another unopened letter in his hand he chuckled nervously and stood up. "What makes you think that?"

"I'm just guessing. I really try hard to befriend with you as my boyfriend's brother but you don't seem to want that. I try to talk to you and be nice to you but the resonance is very few. I honestly don't know why. Did I do anything wrong?" She stated calmly but with slight pressure.

"No." Seto walked to the bookshelf and avoided to look at her.

"Is it because of Joey? I know you never liked him and he doesn't like you either but that was long time ago and"

"I can't care less about your brother." He replied.

"Well…" Serenity sighed and sank her head. "Then why is that that you can't stand me?"

"This has absolutely nothing to do with you." Seto denied. She seemed sad because of him and he wanted to tell her the truth but that wasn't possible. Instead he should make another cruel comment and leave. At the moment he wasn't feeling able to do so. So he lied.

"Then what else is bothering you?" She asked but got only silence as a reply. Another attempt to reach him seemed adequate. "Is it anything concerning a woman?"

Seto narrowed his eyes and gazed at her questioning.

"Mokuba told me that you've probably spent a night with a woman and I thought that maybe she has something to do with it. I don't know who she is but if you want to talk about it I'm here."

Now this was ironic. Serenity thought Seto might be love-sick because of some ordinary woman, Tea in that case. Gladly she didn't know who that woman was. Yes, he was somehow love-sick but not because of Tea. Feeling down and powerless Kaiba used this opportunity to talk about the truth, nearly.

"You're right. I do have feelings for someone but she already has a boyfriend and I respect that. The thing is that I've tried to drown my sorrow in alcohol. Then I met another woman and we both started to get drunk. In the end you can add one and one and we've spent the night together. It was the stupidest thing to do. I guess she's at me now. Not that I really care but I doubt she's going to accept that I don't want to be with her." He told her as calm as he was able to, not daring to look at her. Instead he focused a picture of Mokuba standing on the shelf in front of him.

Serenity took a deep breath. She claimed that Kaiba opening up to her was a step and moved to walk slowly over to him. So this seemed to be the reason for his strange behavior.

"And what if you'd be honest and tell her what was the reason for your doing? If she also was drunk as you say, she might accept it and be even thankful for your honesty." The woman stopped next to him, trying to catch his gaze but there was only shadow beneath the brown strands of hair falling into his face.

"I doubt it'd make any difference." Kaiba almost snorted and finally turned to look at her. "How would you know at all? Have you ever done something stupid because you felt sorry for yourself?"

Serenity shook her head and smiled with sympathy for Kaiba's feelings. "No. But…" She paused unsure of if she should tell him more but decided she could harmlessly continue. "Once I fell for a guy who wasn't interested in me but that was a long time ago."

"And what did you do?" Seto's blue eyed gaze had softened to an unusual extend when he gazed at those trustful eyes staring up at him.

"Nothing. I accepted it. Like I said, long time ago. I was really young and it wasn't more than a crush. So actually, no, I've probably never gone through anything like this." She knew how it felt when your feelings weren't replied but that had never made her do anything stupid.

Serenity gazed up into the tall man's eyes. They were so similar to Mokuba's and yet so different in its icy cold blueness. You never knew what his eyes were telling you. Just speaking to Seto was accompanied with always two sides of different feelings. Right now she was feeling affection because he seemed to trust her and she was feeling nervous that this might end abruptly and he would be his usual self again. Nevertheless she wasn't able to turn away from him.

Kaiba couldn't help staring at her, realizing once again that she was the prettiest woman alive. She had been his crush and was it once again. But she didn't know. Her eyes spoke of innocence and trust. Her body longed for protection. And her lips wanted to get kissed.

"If only it'd be that easy." His voice had faded to a low whisper and Seto could feel his pulse vibrating in his neck when he slowly leant closer to the woman. His brain seemed out of order and totally drowned in Serenity's closeness, the world seemed to have stopped.

The woman opposite him was trembling slightly but couldn't move away, neither did she want to. There he was, reaching out to her and she was so amazed by that person that her mind couldn't think of anything else than how she longed to kiss him. Electric jolts seemed to run through her veins when his lips suddenly brushed against hers and this man took over her whole system in a tender touch. Their lips only just met, the skin brushed against the other one's and neither really moved.

Time had finally stopped and left was only the feel of having Seto's lips against Serenity's. Neither touched the other one with hands. No inch was closed in the gap between their bodies. The small woman knew what she wanted and frighteningly it was Seto. Ever so slowly her hand reached up to touch his face, the jawbone that felt slightly rough compared to the one of a nineteen-years-old. Her touch triggered Kaiba and he raised a hand to carefully place a hand at the woman, afraid she might vanish any second.

The sudden sound of Kaiba's cell phone tore them apart with a start and Serenity clutched a hand to her lips. The air suddenly hitting her skin made her realize what had happened while Seto was already meters away and fishing his phone from out of his jacket.

"Yes." He answered cold but in a quite hoarse voice.

"_Seto? This is Mokuba. Listen."_ The voice at the other end exclaimed.

"Mokuba." Seto said like he needed to voice out the name of his brother in order to make himself come to his senses. But there was no time for regrets at the moment. "What is it?"

"_A friend of mine needs help and I will stay overnight here. I'll be at work tomorrow in time, don't worry."_

"What about Serenity?" Not looking at the woman he asked.

"_Oh… well, just tell her I need to stay with my friend that night. I'll give her a call tomorrow. I've got to finish now. Bye."_ And with that Mokuba had hung up on his brother.

Seto could have growled in anger at his brother but he knew that in truth he was now realizing what he had done. He had kissed Mokuba's girlfriend and the brat wouldn't be at home to save his brother from more stupidity. He couldn't let this happen. Dashing the cell phone into his pocket he glared at the woman, still standing where he had left her.

"Mokuba's staying overnight at his friend's place. He's going to call you tomorrow." Kaiba then walked over to the door and turned again. "I'm going to tell the driver that you can be brought home."

Serenity stared at the empty space where Seto had been telling her that she would be brought home by his driver just seconds ago. He had gone without anything concerning their kiss. But what did she expect? She herself knew that it had been wrong and Kaiba probably felt the same. They only thing giving her riddles was why this could happen in the first place? Just a weak moment or even more? Sighing she made herself ready to get picked up.

* * *

Kaiba dashed up the stairs straight into his office and slammed the door behind him. Grabbing the receiver of his phone he called the driver to bring Serenity home without hesitation. He had just hung up the phone when he thought about what had happened. His whole system filled up with anger at himself and how he could have let this happen. Why did he kiss Serenity? That was the worst betrayal on his brother and growling with his fists clenched he was overwhelmed by his own anger.

His hand reached out to his desk and sent everything that was on it flying across the room. Gladly it had been just the phone, a few pencils and some letters. His laptop had been safely in the drawer beneath the desk. But actually he wouldn't even have cared. He growled and slightly out of breath from his fit of rage he supported himself with his flat palms on the desk. He hated himself for being in love with that Wheeler woman!

Seto needed to get out of here. There was no way he could stay here in his house and calm down. He needed air, a place where he could breathe again. Here, he wouldn't be able to do that. There was only one thing, the one and only thing he could do if he wanted to be alone, all alone, unreachable. Kaiba went to pick up the phone in order to call Roland.

"_Yes, sir?" _The voice at the other end answered.

"Get the chopper ready. I'll be up in five."

* * *

"Are you really sure your girlfriend will be okay if you stay here?" Rebecca asked the raven haired guy sitting on the ground in front of her bed.

They had been talking for quite a long while now and Mokuba was oblivious to everything concerning Yugi and Rebecca. After their third coffee and some chocolate bars their conversation hadn't come to an end yet and it seemed that it wouldn't end soon. So the young Kaiba decided to give his brother a call to tell him he was staying overnight. Not being stupid he could imagine that Serenity would be still at his mansion.

The plan was to ask Seto to tell Serenity where he was. To fulfill this plan Mokuba couldn't tell his brother that he actually was with Rebecca because Serenity shouldn't know. Tomorrow he could easily tell his girlfriend that he had of course thought of her but didn't saw the need to ring her if he asked his brother to tell her Mokuba's whereabouts. He knew Seto wouldn't ask any further questions. To call Serenity instead was way too dangerous. Not that Mokuba indented to cheat on her but she would jump into conclusions and there was no need to risk a row with her.

"Yeah, I told you she knows where I am and she has no problem with that." The raven haired man smiled but the girl raised a suspicious eyebrow.

"Is that why you're talking about 'your friend' instead of saying my name on the phone?" She sat down next to him.

"No." He grinned. "That is because I had my brother on the line and be sure; he can't care less about what's your name, anyway."

Rebecca was convinced after Mokuba's act. She had told him everything about Yugi and what had happened. Mokuba had been understanding. That's why she had offered him to stay overnight. She wouldn't want to be alone and he seemed to be okay with being the shoulder to cry on. A true friend.

"You know, I'm glad you're not like your brother. I don't really like him and at first I thought you'd just be like him." She told him honestly.

"He's not that bad, really. We're quite similar actually. We would both do anything for the ones we love." Mokuba chuckled and tired to joke. "But at some points we're very different. He's got the intelligence and I've got the looks."

Rebecca laughed for the first time that evening. "Yeah, right. I have to say you're the better looking from the two of you. Although, to me you seemed the same – both great jerks!" The blonde teased with her comment and grinned.

"Thanks a lot." Mokuba pouted but couldn't help smiling.

"Sorry, but it's the truth. I hardly knew both of you when I've moved to live here. Years ago I had first seen you and your brother in Domino when I was a kid and hell, I thought you both were arrogant and selfish. Later, I came here and were prejudging. At least about you, Mokuba. Glad I finally realized that I couldn't have found a better friend than you." She explained truthfully and with feeling.

The raven haired guy smiled. "I'm glad." And he was. More than that. He was happy. "Is that why you never wanted to go on a date with me?" He asked grinning lopsided.

"Yes, you seemed like a complete jerk, that's why."

"Me?" Mokuba mocked concern quite funnily putting his hands to his chest.

"Yeah, you. You with your expensive sports car driving to college as if you were repeating the same class the third time and be even proud of it." Rebecca rolled her eyes smiling.

"I was." The guy grinned. "Though I never repeated any class. Is this everything that made you think of me so negative?"

"No. You've already been asking half the girls in college to go on a date with you when I attended."

"So? How should I know that you would attend later?"

"One point to you, sweetheart. But you could have at least stopped dating two girls at the same time while you were asking me out." She cocked her head to the side and closed her eyes to tiny slits but smirked as well.

"You knew that?" Mokuba laughed and received a playful slap at his shoulder. "I would have broken up with them the moment you said yes."

"I didn't."

"You didn't."

"I should have done."

"You should have done."

"No, I mean it, Mokuba. I should have said yes. Maybe I would have seen earlier that you are such a nice person. Don't laugh but I feel stupid falling for Yugi instead. I've been so blind all the time. I was fooling myself." She hung her head.

The young man next to her lifted his arm and drew it around her slim shoulders, slightly pressing her in an embrace of comfort.

"Don't say that. You couldn't know what Yugi wanted. I even think he should have told you earlier. It was obvious you were in love with him. Didn't he realize that?" Mokuba's hand softly stroked across her shoulder.

"I don't know." The girl answered looking into the guy's two blue-gray eyes. "It doesn't matter anymore. I just wish I would have realized sooner. Now it's too late."

"Too late for what?" He raised an eyebrow.

"To say yes to you." She replied blushing slightly, although it certainly wasn't her nature. "Now you've got a girlfriend and all."

Rebecca could see how Mokuba's gaze suddenly spaced out and he stared ahead. "Sorry, I shouldn't have told you that."

"Who says anything would be too late?" His look shifted to her light green eyes again which stared up at him in confusion.

Mokuba reached out to carefully place his hand on her cheek, caressing softly her skin with his thumb before he bent forward to kiss the girl in his arms. He was uncertain but couldn't help it and placed his own lips against hers in the softest way he was able to. There she was, finally giving him a chance after more than three years and though he was in a happy relationship, he knew in the back of his mind that he still was in love with her.

Rebecca. A dream came true for Mokuba. There was no time to think, only time for love. There had been many girlfriends along the way but the one he could never have was now telling him that she was regretted rejecting him. That was it, whether being together with Serenity or not, he longed for the blonde's kiss. And he was prepared for any risk to take. If there was just the slightest chance to be with Rebecca, he would take the risk losing Serenity.

"How can you say that when you're in love with someone else?" The blond girl whispered after she had broken their lip lock. Sadly she gazed up at him.

"Because it has been always you that I've ever wanted." He hoarse replied and kissed her once more.

Rebecca felt highly surprised. Not only that the kiss seemed to cast a spell on her but also that Mokuba had told her that he secretly always wanted to be with her. She wrapped her arms around the young guy's neck and replied to his kiss. How come she had never realized what a great person she was missing? Crawling up on his lap she came up for breath and gazed into his eyes.

"You're serious about this, aren't you? Don't you dare kidding me."

"I could ask you the same." He replied seriously. "There has been nothing as serious as this in my whole life so far."

"Good." She smiled and brushed her hand tenderly across his cheek before she kissed him once more, longing for the feel of his lips against hers.

* * *

"So Yugi had just walked off?" Mai asked Tea who was sitting opposite her on the sofa of Joey's and Mai's apartment.

"Yes and I honestly don't know why I should make myself to even a greater fool than I already am." The dark haired replied. "Obviously he doesn't care about my love life anyway. If he wanted to be part in it, you should think he'd show more interest."

"But you shouldn't have gone I think." Mai protested, not believing Yugi would really ignore what was happening with Tea. "He was asking where you've gone after his talk with Rebecca.

"Really?" Tea couldn't believe her ears. She still doubted it.

"Really. He came and asked where you were and I told him you left. He seemed quite disappointed."

Mai was telling the truth. Yugi seemed slightly disappointed when he heard about that Tea had left Rainmen's last evening. But he shrugged afterwards and headed to join Joey and Bakura.

Tea was now feeling stupid. What if Yugi cared about her though her doubts? The evidence spoke against him. She had seen how he had held Rebecca in his arms and kissed her. Even if he cared about Tea, he obviously wasn't feeling the same as her.

The noise of the lock clicking could be heard by the two women but they stared at each other, both having no clue who this might be. Then the familiar face of Joey's younger sister appeared.

"Hi you two!" She smiled at her friends and joined them in the living room. "Are you alone? Isn't Joey here?" The younger woman asked when she sat down on a chair.

"He's hanging out at the Game Shop with Yugi." The blonde replied. "There's some football game on TV and I threw Joey out to watch at Yugi's place, so I could have a woman's talk with Tea."

Serenity smiled. "Uh… a good idea." The young Wheeler was slightly glad Joey wasn't at home. He could sometimes read her mind and right now, she didn't need that.

"What are you doing here anyway? Aren't you staying at Mokuba's place the night?" Mai was wondered out loud.

"No. He's over at a friend's place to help with something. Don't know exactly." The auburn haired explained and leant back in the arm chair. "You know, Kaiba's some really weird guy."

"Mokuba?" Mai couldn't help asking? For the first time she wasn't sure if Serenity meant her boyfriend or his older brother. Seto was used to be called Kaiba but what on earth had Serenity to do with Kaiba? The only Kaiba she was connected to was Mokuba.

"No, Seto Kaiba." Serenity replied furrowing her brows.

"Seto Kaiba?" Tea voiced out. Hopefully he hadn't told Serenity anything about their interaction from last week.

"Yes. He's probably the weirdest guy I've ever met." She said in a dull tone.

"Who are you telling this?" Mai rolled her eyes dramatically. "Tea could write a brook about Kaiba's weirdness." She exclaimed and received a glare from Tea who unseen by Serenity ran her index finger along her throat in order to silence Mai.

"Really Tea?" The youngest of them asked.

"Um... yeah, she knows him the longest." The blonde saved her neck with that statement.

"Yeah, I know him long enough to think he needs a psychiatrist." The dark haired woman tried to joke with a nervous laughter.

"That's what I think every time I meet him." Serenity said but didn't join in laughing. It was too serious when she thought about what happened and how she had longed for it to go on. Gladly it stopped with the ringing of Kaiba's cell phone. Just in time. "I'm going to leave you to your talk. I'm already tired and still have to write a summary about a book I've read. Good night."

It had been a lie that she needed to write a summary. In truth she needed to be alone to think. She doubted Tea could write a book about Kaiba's weirdness. He had ever opened up to her like he had done to Serenity today? Did he open up at all or was it just an act to get to her? That was to doubt as well because he wouldn't betray his brother. She had only seen few things concerning Seto Kaiba and most of them were showing how cruel, arrogant and selfish he could be. But one thing was sure, when it came to Mokuba he was protective, caring and like a parent. His little brother adored him.

So it was not the case that Seto would kiss her on purpose. It must have resulted out of the process of opening up to her. He had a weak moment and now he was having regrets. She couldn't blame him. She felt miserable herself. Nevertheless, she could only explain Kaiba's weakness but not her own. It must have been the overwhelming feel of him opening up to her. She had been always an emotional type of person. No other reason could be found in her mind.


	7. Letting Go

"_My heart is in my hands, my head is in the clouds,  
__my feet have left the ground, my life is turning around and round…_"

I'm going to change names for the next chapter. Tea will be called Joey, Kaiba's now called Pacey and Yugi's name is Dawson!

"_And every voice inside my head is telling me to run like mad,  
__oh bows and arrows, stars and sunsets…"  
_

I was just joking. I've been watching the first episodes of Dawson's Creek and it reminds me of my own story, but… however! Chapter 7 is on!

"_Every heartbeat, every kiss just makes me wonder what all this is,  
__suits of amour, hearts and arrows…" _

**Chapter 7 - Letting Go**

Kaiba suppressed a yawn and blinked at the computer screen. His eyes felt sour and the lids heavy, even though he was used to nights with few sleep. But this time it was no wonder he felt totally exhausted. He had done a lot of thinking when he had massive time to do so while he was flying around in the sky in his chopper till late after midnight. The weather was terrible and the sky pitch black, not a single beam of moonlight was to be seen, but Seto was glad about it.

No one knew he was all above them. He had often done that when he was feeling bad. Often something like that had happened when Mokuba was growing to a teenager and Seto had his hands full with parenting as well as being CEO of Kaiba Corporation. Mokuba had been an awful teenager; gladly he was going to fulfill his twentieth year of life soon. He was grown up and if he set all the things right in his life, other than his older brother, Mokuba could call himself happy to have an own family some time in future.

Thinking about Mokuba's future made Kaiba almost flinch and lose control of the chopper but it made him also realize that something like the kiss with Serenity mustn't happen ever again. It was a moral question and even though Seto couldn't get the feeling of her lips on his out of his system at the moment, soon it would fade and finally go away. It had to, no matter what it would take him. It was ridiculous that this had happened at all.

Kaiba had never really cared about women, hadn't had the time to. A few girls and women had been quite exciting but exhausting as well and he meant mentally. So he had been always glad sharing Mokuba's experiences of falling in love, although soon it turned out to become unhealthy for the teen. That was the time when he dated two girls at the same time. But Seto never complained. Mokuba was young and he should live his life with anything nice and beautiful that was passing him by on his way. That included finally Serenity.

Serenity was Mokuba's first serious relationship in a long time and certainly that had to mean something special. If only Kaiba could just snap with his fingers and she was out of his mind, his dreams and his heart – as few as he liked to admit the latter. The whole mess had caused him an awful night and his head started to pain at the temples. He had decided not to fly back home, instead landing the chopper at Kaiba Corp. and staying the night in the office.

Bad idea. Kaiba hadn't slept that much because of a steady but too high heart rate and a paining body from all kinds of emotions he usually suppressed. Strangely suppressing them didn't function last night. So about four in the morning he finally fell asleep, if you could call it sleep, being awake every half hour because of dreams including family members and women. The weirdest dream had been about his mum and dad. Every thought pained remembering them. He denied every memory but still, he had some treasured ones.

In the dream Mokuba wasn't born yet but Seto's mum had been pregnant. The little seven-year-old was asking the woman about the baby and she had to promise the kid that she would always love him as much as the baby. Then she told Seto that when the baby boy is here and will grow older with his big brother, he would need him even more than his parents. Seto had asked why and his mum explained to him, the older sibling was the pride of any younger sibling's life and with that came the happiness, joy and fun in his life. Seto meanwhile was having a big grin on his cute face.

Seto yawned again and forced his mind to stop thinking of the dream. That had been the most awful one but the other ones weren't better. Some of them were ridiculous like three little kids clinging to him and calling him 'uncle Seto' while Serenity was walking around their mansion with yet another huge belly. Some of them were painful like Mokuba yelling at Seto that he wasn't his brother anymore and that he would never forgive him. One dream was repeating the latest events, exact meaning: their kiss. Oh and finally, yet another bad dream had been when Seto saw how Mokuba was crying into Joey Wheeler's chest about his big brother's betrayal. Then Mokuba wished Joey to be his big brother and they were happily smiling. Ridiculous and weird.

Kaiba knew he should not think about his dreams but what else was there to think about? He wasn't able to concentrate on his work and had therefore even cancelled two of his appointments. How pathetic! He had needed to be woken by his secretary coming in his office, finding the sleeping CEO on his sofa in the same clothes as yesterday. Thankful for the en suite bathroom next to his office he could at least save his whole appearance to a slight extend. He had drunken three big cups of dark oily black coffee so far and his stomach grumbled when suddenly the phone rang.

"Yes?" He hissed in his usual sharp tone but in a hoarse voice.

"_Mr. Kaiba, there is once again a certain Ms. Gardner on the line, wishing to talk to you._" The receptionist informed politely as ever.

"I don't have time." And with that he slammed the phone back down.

This had been Tea's second try to talk to Kaiba and once more he refused talking with her. Why should he? He just wanted to be left alone. This whole life seemed suddenly even more complicated than it already was. Thanks to women. Who needed them? Kaiba had to sort this out and really soon. With Serenity there were two options. Option one was easy. He could just ignore her. Option two was making sense. He could talk to her and make sure she was convinced about their mistake. Quite emotional. He would start with Tea. There was only one option left with her.

Seto would need to talk to Tea. Maybe Serenity was even right and if he explained Tea his points, she would finally give up on him. He only wished Serenity was right and he wasn't making a fool out of himself. But what greater fool could he be than he already was? No running away anymore. He needed to talk to Gardner.

* * *

Yugi wiped along the counter in the Game Shop. It was boring. The whole morning no one had really shown up. Then Yugi went for lunch and when he came back there was just one guy waiting but he didn't buy anything. Whole eight hours Yugi spent in this shop day in and day out and nothing exciting happened. Sometimes he wished back the times when he used to save the world together with Yami. At least Tea had loved his other soul at that time.

How far had Yugi come? The unbeaten Duel Monsters champion was having the most boring life with the lowest of the low life jobs and not even his family was at his side. His grandfather was with Dr. Hawkins in Malaysia while Yugi's mother had moved to another town. Yugi was left with the Game Shop. No wonder Tea preferred Kaiba to him. Seto Kaiba wasn't a champion anymore and a guy with no friends but he still was leading a huge company as the president which was something great he had achieved on his own. He was rich, wealthy, could buy anything, diamonds for Tea, flowers along the paths she was going…

Except that Kaiba didn't want her. Yugi wanted her but she had spent a night with Seto Kaiba. Oh you loyal high priest, you! Yugi rolled his eyes at his own thought while he was cleaning the shop after he had closed it. He had been talking once again with Joey last night after the football game but Yugi guessed that had had given his friend one beer too much because he was speaking of confessions. Confessions of love.

Joey was convinced that Yugi had to confess his feelings for Tea and the ball was on her side of the field afterwards. Yugi made a mental note not to talk to Joey ever again about serious things after a game of football on TV. But maybe Joey was right. If Yugi really told her that he had feelings for her, then she could make a decision. If only Yugi could definite his own feelings towards her. He couldn't say he had fallen for her. Was he in love? He cared about her an awful lot. That was sure. He would do anything for her if she asked him to and even if not. He wanted to be with her twenty-four hours a day. He wanted to have her around when he was happy or even sad. He wanted to plan things with her. He wanted to take her in his arms and kiss her head while they were watching silly movies on TV. He wanted to share his meals with her and carry her bags when she was shopping. He wanted to see her dance and maybe, just maybe, he would learn to dance as well, so they were able to dance together. He would want to make love to her. Yes, in dedication to her body he wanted to show her how much he loved her.

There it was. He loved her. It made sense. Everything made sense. Yugi loved Tea. How could he not see that? He wanted to share his whole life with her and in order to achieve that, he had to tell her that he loved her. Either she loved him back or she rejected him. He couldn't keep it inside anymore and he would at least fight. He had always done that. Ironically Kaiba had somehow always been part in Yugi's fights. This time they were not on the same side. Yugi would win this, he was sure. He packed away his cleaning items and ran upstairs to take a quick shower before he would go to Tea and make his confession.

* * *

Tea couldn't help her anger inside. During lunch break she had tried to get Kaiba on the line but she got told he had a conference. After work she had tried once more and got told that he simply had no time. This was bad, really bad. She needed to control her anger and stopped at the fast food restaurant for an early dinner. Gladly she had to attend her dancing course tomorrow. That would burn calories.

Arriving at home the woman immediately stepped under the shower in need for refreshment. Why did damn Kaiba refuse talking to her? Was the great Seto Kaiba scared talking to a woman? Maybe she should just inject him two liters of vodka, so he was able to be human. Tea wrapped a towel around her brown-haired head and slipped into the bathrobe. On the way into her bedroom she passed by the stereo and switched it on before she got dressed into some comfortable clothes.

Tea sighed. Should she risk it once more and try to reach Kaiba? Or should she give up on her try to talk to him like humans do? Her decision had to be made another time because suddenly, the doorbell was ringing. Hopefully it wouldn't be Mai again. As much as Tea liked Mai as a friend but seeing her everyday wasn't doing good. She wondered how Joey did that, though, Joey was even worse.

Opening the door Tea's eyes widened in surprise - almost shock.

"I'm here to talk." The tall man said with his arms crossed and his usual blue-eyed glare.

"Well…" Tea still had a hard time trying to believe it but opened the door for him to step inside. "Then come in."

Walking into Tea's apartment he stopped abruptly and turned. She raised her eyebrows at his glare.

"You can take a seat if you want to."

"No, I'd rather stand." He replied.

"Well, I'd rather sit." And with that and a suddenly flash of danger in Tea's eyes she let herself fall down on one of the chairs in her kitchen. "I'm glad you finally decided to talk to me."

"I need to put some things straight."

"Well?" The woman waited for Kaiba to start but he hesitated. Serenity was right, he was just weird.

"I'm not in love with you." His first statement came quite surprisingly. Not the fact itself but the sudden choice of telling her that. "That night in Rainmen's I was in really bad mood because of someone, and I've tried to drown my sorrow in alcohol. Then suddenly there was you and add one and one. You know yourself how it ended. Anyway, it won't happen ever again. To me it was a mistake and nothing more. I'm in love with someone else."

Finishing his speech Kaiba gazed at Tea who was silent for a minute, then smiled. "Great. I'm happy to inform you that we have the same opinion in that case."

"We have?" Seto blinked and finally, sat down opposite Tea. So she didn't even want to be with him. Then why did she want to talk with him so desperately?

"Yes, we have. I'm not in love with you either and my story of how it could come that far between us is quite similar to yours. I was really down that night and drinking seemed a quite adequate solution to take my mind off some things. That's the only reason I invited you coming up here. I don't want it to happen again because I'm in love with someone else as well." She stated calmly.

"Then why the desperate try to talk to me?" Seto couldn't help asking in his need to know.

"Because I simply wanted to know why it could have come that far at all. And by the way I wanted to make sure that it stays between me and you. No one needs to know that." The dark haired woman explained friendly.

"So now you know why. We both were feeling quite down. That's it and I really don't see a reason why I should tell someone." Kaiba told the woman in that certain arrogant tone of his.

"You already did." She replied with an accusing glare.

"That's not true. I didn't tell anyone." He denied with force to his voice.

"You did. When you were leaving Rainmen's the other day and I was stopping you in need to talk, you didn't turn when you told me what bloody joke you and me is and that our spent night of fun had been a mistake in the first place. You didn't realize, Yugi heard what you were saying, did you?" Tea nearly hissed at the man opposite her who was shaking his head slowly.

"So he knows. Tell him to keep his mouth shut about it." He carelessly replied.

"I would if he cared about me." Mentioning it her mood went to sadness. "Since he knows about it, he's changed towards me, acts as if he doesn't care and spends even more time with Rebecca than he already has done before."

"Rebecca." Kaiba spat that name out like some kind of poison. He couldn't help Tea, didn't care about her anyway. But if Rebecca was a problem to her, it could only mean Tea was in love with Yugi. Maybe he could use that fact later.

"You don't like her, do you?" The blue-eyed woman asked.

"No, my brother was in love with her for more than three years but she never even looked at him twice and he could have really any damn girl in the world but he wanted Rebecca Hawkins. You see, all she cares about is Yugi." Kaiba suppressed a snort.

"Well, think positive, Kaiba. Now your brother's with Serenity and that's even better than a blond whining witch." Always a friend she tried to lighten up at least Kaiba's mood but the raised unbelieving eyebrow of him gave her doubts. "Aren't you okay with Mokuba dating Serenity?"

"Of course I am." He replied quite loudly and sent his flat palm on the table.

"Okay." She gazed shocked but tried not to show.

"Well, are we done now?" Kaiba asked impatiently.

"Not yet. I've got one more question to you." Nervously Tea was looking around in search for words to express what she needed to know.

"What now? I can't help you with Yugi. If he only cares about that stupid brat of a girl, I can't help it. I wish I could." He raised an eyebrow at the big blue confused eyes of Tea.

"That's not what I wanted to know. There's something else about our night together. I… well… I can't remember exactly every detail and…" She paused seeing Kaiba's slightly shocked expression of fear what details she might want to remember still. She sighed inwardly. "Did we protect? That's what I want to know! Have we used any kind of protection?"

Being the slightly mean guy Seto was he couldn't help his lopsided smirk. "You mean, you can't remember?" He asked calmly and in a deep low voice that Tea shivered. But she nodded truthfully. His smirk grew and with a traditional 'hmph!' he finally replied with a glare and in an arrogant tone. "Of course we did. How stupid do you think I am? I wouldn't want to pay for a brat!"

Even though Tea could be slightly mad at him for the last statement she couldn't help feeling glad and clutched both of her hands to her chest. "Gladly." She exclaimed and smiled.

"Are we done _now_?" He asked lazily and smirked. "I really had a bad night and feel dead-tired."

Tea was about to answer his question when her doorbell rang once more and her brows furrowed in surprise. She headed for the door when Kaiba rolled his eyes in impatience and stood up. Approaching the front door Tea slowly opened it and was surprised to find Yugi waiting outside.

"Hi Tea." He said and his mouth slowly moved to a smile until Kaiba came into view and Yugi's expression immediately darkened. "Kaiba." He almost growled.

"Oh happy day." The tall brown haired stated sarcastically in a dull tone.

"Yugi, come in and take a seat." Tea held the door open for him to step inside but Yugi stood like frozen in the doorway while Kaiba was making his way to leave.

"Don't worry, Yugi, I'm leaving." The blue-eyed man said and moved until he was standing in front of the smaller guy.

"You better do." The other growled at him threateningly and glared. Neither Tea, nor Kaiba had ever seen Yugi like that. He seemed totally out of himself.

"What's your problem, Yugi?" Kaiba glared back down at him and crossed his arms. He was wondering if this was finally Wheeler's influence. Yugi's behavior had seen better days.

"You are my problem, Kaiba. Get the hell out of here and leave Tea alone!" The smaller guy himself didn't even know what made him talk like that. He had never felt so angry in his whole life before. Who did Kaiba think he was? Tea belonged to Yugi and not to that arrogant asshole of a second best duelist. "You'll always be second best!"

"Watch out what you're saying!" Kaiba hissed trying to control himself. Yugi was going too far now for his taste.

"Are you threatening me?" The other one shot back immediately.

"And if I did!" Slowly the words rolled down Kaiba's tongue and held the most arrogant tone ever in them as the tall brown haired was in need to show his domination.

But it was too late and even Kaiba couldn't think that quickly. In no time Yugi had grabbed him by his collar and pushed him against the nearest wall with such force that the taller man could see stars for quite a while. Yugi growled and put higher pressure to his grip while Kaiba's head was hanging low, not giving away his expression. The Duel Monsters champion slowly started to have regrets and was afraid he might have seriously hurt the CEO before suddenly he made out a weird noise from the other man. Realizing the chuckle of the man in his grip, Yugi's violet eyes narrowed again.

"What are you laughing, Kaiba?"

Lifting his head the blue-eyed man was indeed chuckling. "You're funny, Yugi. Seems like I am the one laughing now. Look at you, how far you've come. The praising friend to everyone you once have been, talking about trust and support, calling me cruel and complaining about hatred in my soul, but look at you and how pathetic you are right now. How far is it with your trust in Tea? Or even me? How far do you support your friends? That far that you're not able to care what they want to tell you? That far that you need to beat me up? It's ridiculous, really. But love makes you do crazy things, huh?" Kaiba put on his trademark smirk.

During Kaiba's speech Yugi had loosened the grip on the taller man but glared up at him. "Says the one who doesn't even know love exists!"

"Stop now!" The voice of Tea suddenly rang in both of their ears. "Yugi, let go of Kaiba. He hasn't done anything, except for talking to me. So why are you freaking out completely now? Are you gone insane? Last I remember you couldn't care less about what happened between me and him. Now you're pulling an act like this. I can't believe it. Nice friend you are!" Tea shook her head being confused like never before.

Yugi, who had actually let go of Kaiba, gazed with sad eyes at the woman. "Tea, I didn't mean it."

"No, Yugi, stop it. Save your words for later, I need to think right now. I'd be glad if you leave my apartment now." Her look was as sad as Yugi's but she meant every word. "Please. I'm confused and need to think. I'm sorry, Yugi, but this has been too much for me at the moment."

Not believing his ears Yugi stared at his friend for a while until his head suddenly sank and he turned to leave without another word.

"You too, Kaiba." She said low.

"You don't have to tell me twice." He snapped and turned to walk out. But he stopped, not turning to look at her. "He loves you. I hope it was enough of a favor to do for you when I haven't fought back. Next time I won't be that nice." And with that he finally went and left Tea staring after him.

* * *

"What are you doing?" Rebecca asked the tall raven haired man gazing into his own refrigerator.

Mokuba drove to Rebecca after work and picked her up before they made their way to the Kaiba mansion where he gave the blonde a short tour of the house. She was impressed but typical Rebecca she had already some ideas of how to change it. Typical Mokuba was to go in search for something to eat. He was damn hungry and loved to prove himself in his cooking skills.

"I will prepare dinner." He muttered and the blonde raised an eyebrow.

The girl lifted herself up on the counter and sat down there, slightly leaning back and watching Mokuba. Her eyes wandered across his broad back dressed in a black shirt that hung loosely from out of his blue jeans. His long black hair he had tied into a ponytail but reaching out with her slim fingers, Rebecca pulled it loose.

"Hey, you cheeky chick." The young man turned and sent his deadly grin to which all the girl had fallen for him in high school. "What are you doing?"

Rebecca grinned as well, not replying to him. She knew as well how much of an effect she was having on boys and wasn't wondering when Mokuka's eyes scanned the area beneath her short school skirt before he locked eyes with her. His arms snaked around the girl's body and he pulled them closer until they were face to face.

"I like your hair better this way." Finally she answered and ran her hands through the long dark locks. He was deadly.

Although Mokuba has stayed the night with Rebecca, they didn't do anything more than kissing. After all the girl was just about sixteen and she had refused to any offer so far. Even the one of the most famous and handsome guy in Domino, who had spent the night next to her. His reaction had amazed her when she asked him not to go any further than to kiss. With a smile he told her that it was okay.

"Oh god, help me…" He mumbled and started to kiss below her jawbone down to her neck and across her key bone which sent shivers down her spine. Ever so softly his hands brushed along her arms and to her back while he kept kissing her neck.

Rebecca couldn't help closing her eyes and entangled her fingers in Mokuba's black hair. She loved his smell which probably was an expensive brand of eau de toilette and inhaled the scent. Slowly but steadily she was falling for him and cursed herself for not doing earlier. However, now could be the perfect time, the perfect age. Lettings her hands run across his broad shoulders she smiled. He was perfect for her.

"Mokuba?"

"Hm?" His eyes darted upwards to lock with hers.

"I think I'm falling in love with you."

* * *

This had been an awful day. Kaiba sat in his limousine on his way home and tried to keep his eyes open. Dead tired he thought about what hell of a day he had gone through. At first his night had been sleepless on the sofa in his office. Then he couldn't take his mind off Serenity and last but not least he had finally told Tea his opinion. Gladly she wasn't in love with him.

Tea was obviously in love with Yugi and the other way round. It was no wonder that Yugi was mad at Kaiba but his fit of rage hadn't made the day any better. If Kaiba hadn't his own head full with problems, he would have taught Yugi respect. But in his current condition the tall dark haired was just glad he was finally arriving at home. All he wanted to do right now was to have a quick shower and fall into bed, needing rest.

The limousine stopped and Seto climbed out before he was making his way to the front porch only to recognize a familiar figure standing there and gazing at him with an unreadable expression in her warm hazel eyes. This was just what he was missing. He couldn't cope with her right now and just sent a warning glare at the small woman ahead.

"Isn't Mokuba at home?" Kaiba asked nonchalantly and passed her by.

"I haven't rung the bell so far." Serenity replied and tried to control her heart beat which was suddenly pounding like hell. "I've just arrived here."

Kaiba just unlocked the door and walked inside, leaving the door open for her to follow. Carefully she stepped inside and watched the tall man taking off his coat.

"What?" He snapped at her glaring.

"Have you seen your brother today?" Nervously fiddling with her fingers the young woman looked away from his cold blue-eyed gaze. "You said he's going to call me but he didn't."

"That's what he told me. Anything else, ask him. I haven't seen him today." Kaiba didn't look at her while he was looking like usual through his mail.

Serenity actually didn't know where to look for Mokuba. She could start in his room but the sudden noise of laughter coming from out of the kitchen stopped her. Questioningly she looked up at Kaiba who was sending a wondering glare in the direction the laughter seemed to come from. Walking straight to the noise he was wondering as well as the woman following him. The noise sounded like laughter but not just any laughter, but the laughter of a girl.

Seto stopped in front of the kitchen's door and pushed it open. His blue eyes widened when he saw his brother in a lip lock with Rebecca Hawkins.

"Oh hi Seto…" Mokuba grinned with the girl in front of him sitting on the counter.

"What are you doing?" The older brother growled in a deep voice and the younger one furrowed his brows.

Seto sent an almost hateful glare at both of them. Both! Mokuba didn't get it why suddenly his brother had a problem with him having a girl in the house. He hadn't seen Serenity so far but slowly he realized the small figure behind his older brother. Mokuba's grin faded and his eyes widened.

"Have you lost all common sense?" With a furious glare Seto angrily started to yell at his sibling who had actually no clue what was happening right now. "How much of a moron are you?"

"But"

"No but. That's not what I taught you to do!" Seto pointed accusingly at the raven-haired. "Do you have just the slightest bit of honor in you? I thought you were through with your premature behavior." The yelling continued.

Meanwhile Serenity fought against her tears. Mokuba was cheating on her and all she wanted to do right now was to run away. The picture of the blonde sitting there made her sick and slowly she turned to leave.

"Serenity…" Mokuba had finally found the brain to run after her. Passing by his furious brother he stopped her midway and gazed at her. He had no words to say to her actually. "I didn't mean for you to see me like this."

"And how was I supposed to see you? Was I supposed to see you at all?" Shaking her head in disgust she gazed into the gray-blue eyes she had once trusted.

"I guess Mokuba has finally lost all brains within this premature creature of a whore he's brought in my house." The familiar growl of Seto rang in Mokuba's ears and he turned to see his brother sending the icy glare that normally only his enemies would receive. "You're not worth the dirt on your shoes, if you're not able to see how bloody stupid you are right now."

While Mokuba was trying to get what was happening and why the hell his own brother was insulting him like never before, Seto slowly walked to the front door and opened it.

"Get out." The brown haired told Serenity whose eyes widened in surprise that Kaiba was throwing her out. Obeying she did what was told her to do. She couldn't wait to get out of here anyway.

With a last dismissive glare Seto slammed the front door shut, leaving Mokuba to stare into space. The blond head of Rebecca was showing behind him with a worried expression on her face.

"Wait up there." The menacing voice of Kaiba made Serenity stop in her tracks. She hadn't realized him following her and was surprised to see him pulling out his car. Stopping the same next to her the passenger's door went to open in an attempt to offer her the seat but Kaiba didn't say a single word. Serenity climbed inside with a pounding heart and the CEO sped off.

During the ride to Serenity's place both of them had been silent, neither one saying anything at all. Serenity was gazing out of the window and couldn't get her mind off Mokuba and Rebecca as well as Seto's behavior afterwards. By the way the painful feeling of her boyfriend's betrayal was accompanying her in every vein of her body.

Kaiba stopped the car in front of the apartment building Wheeler was living in. Gazing at the woman next to him he felt helpless and hurt. Strangely his own heart was in pain when he realized his brother cheating on the woman both of them loved. How could he hurt her? Anger overcame the older sibling and in a fit of rage he said things to Mokuba he had never ever said to him before.

"Will you be okay?" His blue eyes shifted to read any sign of feeling, good or worse, in her face.

Serenity nodded and gazed up at the man next to her. "Thank you, Kaiba." She said hoarsely. Her voice was fading in her desperate try to suppress her tears. Then she opened the door and climbed out of the sports car before she disappeared into the building.

Kaiba felt his headache growing even and with a sigh he sped off in his car.

Mai Valentine was alone at home as her long term boyfriend Joey Wheeler was working in an afternoon shift when Serenity entered the apartment. The young woman's head hung low while she was making her way through the apartment until she disappeared in her bedroom. The blonde wondered, sensing something was wrong and followed the auburn-haired.

Knocking softly on the door Mai waited for reply but as there was no response she dared to pipe her head inside. Serenity was lying on her bed with her face hidden in the sheets and apart from the noise you could see that she was crying from the shake of her shoulders. Worried Mai carefully went near the woman and sat down next to her. The blonde reached out with her hand and brushed away some damp strands of auburn hair which clung to Serenity and began to softly caress her hair.

"What's happened?" She asked in a soft tone to her voice.

"Everything." Came the muffled reply before Serenity slightly turned to speak properly. "Mokuba's with Rebecca. I've just seen them!" A new fit of tears burned along her skin and she sobbed like a young kid.

Mai reached out for a handkerchief and gave it to the other woman. "Where have you seen them?"

"At home, Mokuba's home! He had her at home! And they were kissing!" She exclaimed and let herself become comforted by Mai's soft touch.

"But… slow, Serenity. Would you like to tell me from the start?" The violet eyes of the ten years older woman looked friendly and warm.

Serenity turned to finally look at Mai properly. "Mokuba hasn't called me like he said he would and I went to go to his place when Kaiba arrived in his limo. Annoyed as ever he led me in and we both were surprised when… when…" Another wave of tears hit the young woman but she calmed down slightly after a while. "We heard voices from out of the kitchen and we found Mokuba and Rebecca kissing each other."

"Oh god, Serenity, I'm so sorry." Mai took Serenity's hand in hers and gave it a comforting squeeze. "But how could that happen?"

"I don't know. I just feel so stupid. I was honestly believing I could trust him. I've been a fool." She cried but Mai smiled sadly.

"No, you're not a fool. He's just stupid if he can't see what he's throwing away." The blonde couldn't help her own anger building inside against the young Kaiba.

"That's what Kaiba told him as well." Serenity mumbled pulling up her knees and hugging them with her arms.

"Kaiba?"

"Yes, he's got really angry at Mokuba and was yelling at him all kinds of things like that he's not worth the dirt on his shoes and that he's a moron and even more." Sniffing the girl wiped along her face with the sleeve her shirt. "Then Kaiba called Rebecca a whore."

Mai raised her eyebrows almost to the beginning of her hairline. "Seto Kaiba did that?"

"Yeah and then he's thankfully given me a ride home."

"A ride home." Mai repeated bitterly thinking of that last time Kaiba offered someone a ride home. Tea had been his victim in that case. "Nice of him but…" Sighing she tried to find words. "Don't let yourself get fooled by him, yeah? I doubt Kaiba's just nice if nothing comes 'round for him in the end."

Serenity gazed up at Mai and shrugged. "Don't know but… there's something else I haven't told you. It's happened yesterday when I was waiting for Mokuba at Kaiba's place. Seto came home and usually he's quite mean to me but I asked him why he didn't like me. He told me many things after that an assured that it hasn't got anything to do with me. I was really touched and I guess he was just weak… I don't know exactly but… we kissed."

Serenity was confused by Mai's silence. "Really, Mai, we kissed. And it was really strange because I wanted it as much as he did and then suddenly his cell phone rang and we broke apart. He must have felt miserable after kissing his brother's girlfriend and regretted it. Because after that he just left with no word about what had happened."

The blonde sighed thoughtfully and sadly. "Serenity, better forget about it."

"That's what I was supposed to try but instead I found my damn boyfriend kissing someone else and all he could say was that he didn't mean for me to see him like this!" Serenity almost snorted at that asshole's stupid remark. "And then there's Seto who's really nice to me at times and there's this kiss I can't get out of my head. I'm so confused." She whined.

"Serenity," Mai started in a very serious tone. "About Kaiba I need to tell you something. I'm not allowed to tell anyone actually but I have to in that case. Do you remember the evening Kaiba was in Rainmen's?" After a nod from the smaller woman the blonde continued. "That evening he invited Tea to drink with him and guess what! He had been really nice. That's why Tea accepted his invitation and they both started to get drunk. In the end he had used this opportunity to get her laid."

Two hazel eyes stared at Mai in disbelief and disappointment. "Oh."

The blonde just nodded. "I just don't want you to get fooled by him. I promised Tea not to tell anyone, so please, keep it a secret."

Nodding Serenity gazed at her friend. "Mai? Could you leave me alone now? I'd like to be alone for a while and…"

"Of course." With that Mai gave a friendly smile of comfort and left.

(A/N: So what do you think? Tell me. I appreciate it. ;-D)


	8. Conclusions

Just finished the next chapter - gotta have to say once again that English's not my original language, so bare with me because of possible mistakes... thx. Thanks for any review!

Sangha.x**

* * *

**

**Chapter 8 – Conclusions**

Mokuba was staring at the empty space where his brother had stood last time he'd seen him. Seto had left with Serenity and still, the younger Kaiba couldn't believe that his brother had insulted him that much. Who did Seto think he was? So Mokuba had made a mistake bringing Rebecca home even before finishing off his relationship with Serenity but that didn't give Seto the right to disown his brother – expecting the worst case.

Rebecca slowly made her way to the young man who had his back to her and softly touched his arm. "Maybe it's better if I'm going to leave." She said carefully.

"No!" Mokuba shot back and turned suddenly. "I don't want you to leave."

"But you see, your brother will come back sooner or later and probably he wants to have another word with you." She tried to reason but the guy was stubborn.

"So? This isn't his house alone and he can't tell me who to bring here. You're going to stay here with me and anyway, for today he's fucked up properly. I won't accept an apology."

"But I don't want to be in the way."

"You won't. Aren't you mad at him? I can't believe he had the nerve to call you a whore. True, I've made some mistakes but he goes too far." Mokuba stubbornly explained shaking his head.

Rebecca took the guy's hand in hers. "Of course I'm mad at him but maybe he needs some time to think about what he had said and done. That's why I don't want to provoke confrontation. But if you want to be with me we can always go to my place."

A deep breath was inhaled into the lungs of the dark haired man. "Fine. Let's go."

* * *

Yet another Tuesday morning and Yugi blinked into the bright sun light. It was the first day for many weeks the winter's sun was shining and the young man had to shield his eyes with his hand to gaze outside the window. He hadn't slept much last night and felt sick even. After he had left Tea's apartment yesterday he had had a lot time to do some serious thinking. He wasn't getting any further.

Tea's words rang in his mind and she was probably right. Yugi had been a bad friend to her. No wonder she was thinking he didn't care. But how was he supposed to act finding out his love spent a night with Seto Kaiba? Yugi couldn't deny he had been jealous but stubbornly he tried to be just a friend, unfortunately a bad one at that point. As a friend he wasn't there for Tea and as more he had clearly made sure Tea was thinking he was in love with Rebecca.

Had Yugi been the good friend he normally was, he would have known how far it was between Kaiba and Tea and obviously there wasn't much, apart from their spent night. With an inward sigh Yugi clutched his hand to his forehead and cursed himself for being an idiot. Of course, he had acted the wrong way with threatening Kaiba. He had made himself to a complete fool. Now Tea was mad at him and she had all right to.

Why could Yugi lose his temper? He had never done that. Not Yugi. He needed to put things right again and apologize. Not only to Tea but also to Kaiba. Then he would confess his love for Tea and left was only her decision if she wanted to be with him or not. But how should he start and all above where? It didn't really matter after all. One thing was for sure, Yugi needed to wait for Tea to make a move right now. She had thrown him out after his fit of rage against Kaiba.

Maybe Yugi should talk to Joey. Bad idea. If Yugi told Joey that he had almost punched Kaiba, the blond guy would only jump for joy and celebrate the beginning of a new century. Who was there left to talk to? It had always been Tea he could ask when he was having problems. Now she was the problem herself. He might talk to Tristan but he was occupied with his new girlfriend. A love sick trying to give advice was never doing any good.

Mai? No she probably would tell Joey. She couldn't stand Kaiba as well. Bakura? He was Tea's former boyfriend. He was out of any discussion. Grandpa? He was in some foreign country and shouldn't give advice to a twenty-four-year-old man. By the way old people had this habit to get kind of kinky with growing age. Yugi's mum? Even worse idea. He could hear her say 'get a proper haircut, no wonder you don't get the girl'. Not his mum, no. Who else?

There was no one left Yugi could ask for advice. He had to do that by himself. He just hoped he could do this.

* * *

It was a sunny winter's day but for the first time in her life Serenity couldn't see the beauty of this usually wonderful world. Her mind was drifting again and again to the things happening during last week. The weirdest thing was that although she could still bite Mokuba's head off her mind was with his older brother, Seto Kaiba. Last night she had thought about everything and couldn't get her head around all the questions in her mind.

Why was Mokuba cheating on her? Had his friend been Rebecca when he said he went to a friend in need for help? Why did Seto and she kiss each other the same evening? Was he oblivious to Mokuba's whereabouts? Would he freak out like he had done if he knew? Would he act to get to Serenity? Was Seto the kind of guy who had one night stands? Was he in love with Serenity? Would he know about love if he had never a real girlfriend?

Serenity's head started to hurt and rubbing her temples she gave up reading her book in the university's library. She suppressed a yawn and tapped her pencil against the table. In school she only needed to think logically and in real life there was certainly no logic, or was there? Needing a solution to a problem in school she would just write down what she had and with an easy formula she would simply calculate until she knew what was right. Even in literature she could at least write down the facts and see what might have been reasons for the character's doings.

But maybe it worked in real life too. Serenity took a sheet of paper and wrote down:

Seto told me: made big mistake, spent the night with a woman, but in love with someone else who already had a boyfriend

Mai told me: Tea and Seto spent a night together

Possible solution:

99 true, the woman Seto was mentioning was Tea – they've spent a night together

That made clear that Seto regretted having spent the night with Tea because he was in love with someone else. But who was the mysterious girl with the boyfriend?

Possible solutions:

Serenity – but she was single again

Mai – that would be a problem

Taking herself as a possibility Serenity went through the details again. Seto was in love with her but she had already been with guy and he respected that. Why should he care – Seto Kaiba – for anyone else than his own brother? This was making sense.

What didn't make any sense was his behavior. At first he had been totally impolite, rude and a complete jerk. Then he had been acceptable until they had kissed. Afterwards he was rude again and even mean and ignorant. That was until he had seen Mokuba and Rebecca. Kaiba's fit of rage was a riddle to the woman. Why should he get pissed as his brother's and her relationship broke apart? If he was in love with her that would be the jackpot. Was it just a moral thing? Or was he angry because he couldn't play his games anymore with Serenity?

There she was again, thinking and riddling about Kaiba but with no solution at all. Knowing Kaiba just slightly was enough to be suspicious about his true intentions. Maybe someone knew more than the auburn-haired but who could that be? There was only one way to solve the riddle, starting at the 99, Tea Gardner. Serenity needed to talk to her.

* * *

Could life become any more difficult? During her teenage years Tea had thought everything was starting to get difficult but it would go by. Now she wasn't so sure anymore. Maybe life became more complicated with every passing year. Feeling tired and sick she had placed herself on the sofa. Her stereo was playing old pop songs from the radio while she was once again thinking.

Finally, when she had come to an agreement with Kaiba, there had been Yugi who had totally freaked out. So Kaiba had been an asshole and still he was in some sort of way, always had been, but in the end he had been nice after all. In his very own way of course but that wasn't the point. Tea could be glad they had the same opinion, found an agreement and concerning their night together had used protection.

But the thing was Tea wasn't happy. Yugi had shown up and threatened Kaiba in a way that had made the woman scared. He hadn't been a good friend to her during the latest times and suddenly his concern made him do things he wasn't able to ever before. Was he in love with her? The question was in her mind and not without reason. His behavior could easily be explained with jealousy but since Tea had seen him with Rebecca she doubted any connection of love between her and Yugi.

The sudden ringing of the doorbell made the blue-eyed woman jump off the sofa. She was wondering who it might be this time. Slightly annoyed she walked to open the door and hoped it wouldn't be Kaiba or Yugi. She would indeed be glad if it was Mai this time. Or anyone else would be just fine but not Yugi or Kaiba. She was surprised to find Serenity Wheeler waiting outside.

"Serenity, hello."

"Hi Tea, can we talk for a minute. I need your advice." The hazel-eyed gazed at the woman who led her inside the apartment.

"Sit down, can I offer you a soda? Coffee? Anything else?" Tea smiled at the not so very good-looking small woman sitting down on the sofa.

"No, thank you." Serenity gave a tired smile. Her eyes were still looking slightly swollen because half of the last night she had been crying and almost every bone in her body felt exhausted.

"Well, you don't look too good. Is everything okay with you?" Sensing problems the older one sat down opposite Serenity on an armchair and looked worried.

"Mokuba broke up with me." The auburn-haired explained, not knowing where to start with her actual matter.

"Oh… I'm so sorry for you. What happened?" She couldn't help asking.

"Mokuba's with Rebecca but anyway, that's not the reason why I want to speak to you." The younger said and fiddled with her small handbag.

"Mokuba's with Rebecca?" So sorry Tea was for Serenity but those were good news in some kind of way. "Sorry for me being nosey, but I can't explain myself how this can be."

"I don't know either. I found out yesterday and really, I don't care about further details. Ask them. I just know that the story of Mokuba and I is past."

"Okay, sorry. It was impolite of me to ask you this. So you wanted to speak to me about something else. What is it?" Trying to be a good friend Tea switched the topic as much as she hated it. But there would be time enough later to get to the ground of Rebecca being with Mokuba.

"Actually I don't know how to start." Serenity began quite nervously. "Please don't be mad at Mai but she told me about you and Kaiba."

Tea's face fell by mentioning that. "You have to understand I don't like to tell everyone about this. So I'm of course disappointed in Mai that she told you. It's not something I'm proud of."

"Sorry, I know. Mai said she's not allowed telling anyone and I understand why. But she told me out of good reasons; please don't be mad at her. She just did because there was something between him and me. Kaiba." Serenity's hazel eyes suddenly seemed to think of the carpet as an interesting part in Tea's apartment while the blue-eyed stared at her in disbelief.

"Between you and Seto Kaiba?" Furrowing a brow Tea was confused.

"Yeah, a simple kiss. Nothing else, nothing worse, nothing more. But…" Taking a deep breath Serenity continued. "The point is I don't know what to think of it. It happened last Sunday. I was waiting for Mokuba at the Kaiba's place because he went to see a friend. I guess it was Rebecca but that's not important. Important is that Seto suddenly showed up and as usual he had been quite mean and rude. Like he is normally."

"I understand what you mean."

"Yeah, but I asked him why he can't stand me and he assured me that it hasn't got anything to do with me. Because of my pressure he told me that he had made a huge mistake and spent the night with a woman who was probably mad at him. He said he had been drinking too much because he was in love with someone but she already had a boyfriend what he indeed respected by the way." Serenity finished for once and thought about if she had missed out on something.

"Wow." Tea was slightly impressed that Kaiba had told Serenity all that. Maybe all of them knew nothing really about him. Just the face he was showing them. "And Mai told you I was the one."

"Not exactly. I assumed you were meant by him when Mai told me about you spending the night with him."

"Probably. We both were drunk and neither of us would have done that otherwise. It wasn't planned and it was one big mistake." Tea needed to get this off her chest but this wasn't the topic right now. "But how could it come to you kissing each other?"

"Well, I told him he should talk to that woman and tell the truth about his reasons. Somehow this had resulted in a very awkward situation. He wasn't like he usually is. He was thoughtful, even sad and kind of lovely." Serenity couldn't help her blush rising mentioning the word lovely. She felt like a stupid teenager again. "Then we kissed. I don't know why. I was still with Mokuba at that time. After we broke apart Seto ignored what had happened and left. I guess he felt regret because of his brother. I felt miserable as well."

"Wait a second. So you kissed and then he left and you think it was because of Mokuba." Tea gave a short summary.

"Yes. But I'm not sure anymore. Yesterday we both found out about Mokuba and Rebecca. Seto was his usual self again and gave the same mean comments as ever until we found my boyfriend with a certain blonde in the kitchen, testing how deep each other's throats are." Serenity almost spat her last sentence in disgust. "Then Seto freaked out."

"Seto… I mean Kaiba freaked out? What did he do?" Tea had been asking herself why Serenity suddenly called the CEO by his first name during her speech. Were they so close?

"Yeah, he called Mokuba names, bad ones really. He called Rebecca a whore and Mokuba a moron and things like that. After that he gave me a ride home and that's it so far."

"Okay but I don't really know what I could do to help you. I don't understand Kaiba myself. I had been trying to get a hold on him for three days but he wouldn't want to talk to me after you know what happened. Then yesterday, suddenly, he was here and wanted to put some thing straight to say it with his own words. Actually we came to an agreement including to tell no one about it. And…" Suddenly another memory crossed Tea's mind. "You know what he told me as well? That he was in love with someone else. I don't know who."

"At least there has to be some truth in it if he even told both of us." Serenity shrugged.

"Do you want it to be you?"

"What?"

"Do you want him to be in love with you?" Tea asked more precise.

Serenity shrugged. "Should I? I don't know because there are many reasons speaking against. First of all I don't even know if he's indeed in love with me and I shouldn't jump into conclusions. Then there's still Mokuba. This could be difficult. Then there's Seto's controvert nature. Why had he been so angry with Mokuba cheating on me? If he was in love with me he could be glad that I'm single again."

"I see but…" Tea paused having an idea. "It makes sense. You said he should talk to the woman and suddenly he shows up here. Could it be that he has only done that because of you?"

Serenity shrugged. "No idea. He's really weird, like I said."

"I need to ask you something else. How can you just go over from one Kaiba to another? I mean, aren't you just sad about Mokuba? We shouldn't forget the aspect that you might hurt Kaiba. God, I can't believe I'm saying this." Tea shook her head at the weird thought of hurting non-emotional cold-hearted Kaiba.

"I can't deny that I'm still mad at Mokuba. I feel sad and disappointed in him. He cheated on me and I feel betrayed but the thing is, even before this happened I couldn't get Seto out of my mind. Since this kiss I'm totally confused. It wasn't like with Mokuba or anyone else. It felt special." Again she couldn't hold back the blush in her face. "I sound childish, huh? But I can't help it. When we were kissing there was nothing else that I wanted apart from him. I don't know how far I would have gone. I really feel stupid."

Tea smiled at Serenity. Indeed she seemed to be really in love with Kaiba, even though she had been with his brother until only two days ago. "You're not stupid and you shouldn't feel so."

"You think? Well, but I do feel stupid. I must sound stupid. Here I am, telling you this. You had him, full stop. And you're not in love with him, don't even want him. I just kiss him and fall in love with him. So don't tell me I'm not stupid." Serenity sighed heavily.

"Yes, I had him but I had never even wanted to. Not on purpose. Like I've said before I'm in love with someone else and actually I've to admit I can't remember about the night with Kaiba when it comes to emotions. I was just drunk. That's something else." Tea sadly smiled. It was sad that people could do things without emotion. Alcohol was a bad thing.

"Probably." Serenity suddenly smiled out of nothing. "That means you and Kaiba are okay. There isn't anything between both of you anymore?"

Tea raised her eyebrows. "For god's sake, no!"

"Great." Shyly the hazel-eyed gazed down and smiled. "Thank you Tea. For being nice and a great friend and well, for everything."

"Welcome but what are you up to?"

"Facing Seto Kaiba."

* * *

When Kaiba came back last night after bringing home Serenity he found the house empty. Still dead tired he went straight to bed and fell into a deep slumber. But not thinking the evening before his mind was already hurting waking up in the morning. He knew he had overreacted calling his brother names and he was sorry for doing so. But on the other hand he still couldn't believe how stupid his brother seemed to be after all.

Mokuba had hurt the woman Seto was in love with which was making the older one angry still. Nonetheless there was the aspect of Serenity being single now. But certainly the woman didn't feel ready for another relationship yet, not to mention with the brother of her former boyfriend. Actually Seto had no clue about how to react to Mokuba at all. He was too stubborn to apologize and why should he anyway? He had been right after all when he thought of his brother as a stupid moron concerning Serenity.

Kaiba drove straight to his company where he could occupy his mind with work. The whole morning he just ignorantly blocked any thought out off his mind when it came to the whole cheating thing. It only brought more confusion to his already stressed mind. The situation didn't become any better when Mokuba suddenly faced him and sent a huge heap of files nonchalantly on his big brother's desk.

"What's this?" The brown haired guy asked.

"The work I've had no time to do so far." Mokuba replied still mad at his brother. "You can do that by yourself I guess."

"Do you?" Seto couldn't help his arrogant tone.

"Yes." Short cut the younger one answered. "I'll go home now but I thought if you seriously want to have this to be done today, you can do it by yourself."

This morning Mokuba had found his desk full of files. Not that this was rare but it had been unusually much and he guessed Seto was pulling that straw to make him drown in work. But the younger Kaiba had other plans.

"Fine." The CEO replied simply and glued with his blue eyes to the computer screen.

Mokuba sighed and walked to the door. "How long are you going to ignore me?"

Seto's gaze shot up with a glare. "I don't know what you mean. "

"Of course you don't." The younger one said in a dull tone with a lot of sarcasm and left shrugging.

Sure, Mokuba was sorry about Serenity and how things had turned out in the end. He felt as mean as he probably had been but that didn't give his brother the right to yell at him, ignore him or be mad at him at all. Not when the younger could tell hours long tales about his brother's own selfishness. But he had never complained, ever stood by him. No, this time Mokuba wouldn't give in that quickly.

After Mokuba had left Kaiba sighed but kept working until the late afternoon. Finally leaving the company it had been half past seven and Seto was sure in about five years at last he would need glasses, so damn much hurt his eyes after working more then thirteen hours at the computer. He should go and buy a wheelchair in order to be prepared for everything because his back was aching as well. But stiff as ever he sat on the backseat of his limousine and stared ahead.

It was getting slowly warmer with each day. The temperature was rising above zero and Seto was carrying his winter's coat across his left arm when he walked up the front porch. Mokuba's car was standing in the driveway, so the guy had to be at home Seto thought and entered the mansion. Maybe he should apologize after all. He had never done that before, never needed to actually, never called his brother not worth the dirt on his shoes and even if Seto had made mistakes he had never actually said he was sorry. Was today the day to start with?

The voices coming from the living room made Seto suspiscious and he went straight to where the noise was coming from. His worst guess became truth when he saw the little blonde upon his brother on the sofa. But hell, the sight was still better than if it would have been Serenity. Mokuba was such a gangster when it came to girls and women. A sickening feeling overcame Kaiba by the thought of his brother doing these things to Serenity. After all he could be glad it was the blond smart ass Mokuba was bugging now.

Seto coughed and finally entered the room properly. Rebecca shot up startled and had a purple color to her cheeks while Mokuba was having an annoyed look in his eyes as soon as he recognized his older brother.

"Did I interrupt anything?" Kaiba's trademark smirk appeared when he crossed his arms.

The blonde was about to say no when Mokuba cut in. "Actually, yes you do." A grin appeared.

"Well, I just wanted to inform you that I'll be out in about an hour. I'd be glad if you could take this somewhere else as long as I'm at home. Or at least wait till I'm out of here." Seto stated calmly with just a slight pitch of sarcasm, arrogance and amusement.

"Let's go upstairs." Mokuba grinned at his girlfriend but she glared at him before she was gazing at the tall brown-haired standing at the door.

"We can wait." Rebecca replied with a sweet smile receiving a pout from the man beneath her.

Kaiba smirked, again, and left the two of them to themselves. He was going out because of them but they shouldn't know. His thoughts were quite complicated in this case but he had his reasons. First of all, he didn't need to see them making out. Second, if he went out there would be the slight possibility of seeing Serenity. Third, he wouldn't need to apologize to Mokuba and his excuse was that Rebecca was here.

Anyway, after a quick change of clothes Seto said even goodbye to the youngsters before he jumped within his NSX and drove over to Rainmen's. The club wasn't even that full on a Tuesday evening and Kaiba was glad about it. He was looking for a quiet corner and ordered himself a beer. One wouldn't hurt, would it? Though oblivious to the usual stares of people whenever Seto Kaiba was showing up somewhere he chose to ignore them.

"Kaiba."

Seto's gaze darted upwards to where the familiar voice was coming from and faced Yugi. Next to him stood his always present nerving friend Joey Wheeler with a puzzled expression. Narrowing his eyes Kaiba silently snorted.

"What do you want, Yugi?"

"Kaiba, listen to me. I want to apologize about what I did yesterday. It was wrong of me to threaten you and I ask you to accept my apology." The not so tall man said in a sincere tone standing in front of an eye-brow-raising Kaiba.

"Save it, Yugi. I don't need any apology." Seto couldn't deny he was secretly pleased that his old rival had apologized. But being the stubborn guy he was Kaiba did only show that he'd give a damn about it.

"Thank you, Kaiba. I appreciate it." Yugi said with a nod. He probably knew the tall blue-eyed the best after all and accepted him the way he was.

"Just forget about it. I don't have time for your problems, Yugi. I've got my own things to care about." With a wink of his hand Seto shrugged the other guy off.

"Damn Kaiba!" Suddenly Joey thundered. "How can anyone be as heartless and cruel as you? Yugi's just apologized to you! But you are so damn selfish!"

"Joey." Yugi cut into his friend's raged self. "Stop it. It's okay for me."

"As if you would know anything at all, Wheeler." Seto suddenly stood up and gazed down menacingly at the blond haired younger man. "But I could easily show you how heartless and cruel I really am." Kaiba smirked. "But you're lucky the award for the one who can lick my ass this year's already given to someone else! I'm going to make it really easy for you now." The blue-eyed man gave a lazy smirk to show how annoyed he was. "Just leave me."

Joey growled instead and was ready to shot another remark at Kaiba but got calmed down by Yugi who was slowly pushing him away.

"C'mon Joey, let's go. Leave him." Yugi said and the blonde obeyed as usual.

Kaiba instead went to go upstairs, thinking of how that dog Wheeler always obeyed to his master Yugi. A slight smirk appeared on Seto's face but it faded when he realized once again that Joey was still Serenity's brother and even if she would be with Kaiba one day the next problem was already ahead of Seto. Right now he shouldn't care about that.

"What was that about at all, Yugi?" Joey asked his friend as soon as Kaiba was out of sight.

"We had a row." The smaller one replied. "Nothing serious." He lied.

That evening Serenity didn't show up at Rainmen's, neither did Tea. But tomorrow as another day, another chance and Kaiba as well as Yugi were up to take the challenge. Both of them had different destinations but quite a similar way to go.

(A/N: I hope you understand why I called this rather boring chapter 'Conclusions'. The puzzle's nearly finished and put together! The next chapter should be more interesting.)


	9. Confessions

**Delicate** by Sangha

A/N: Sorry, it has taken me quite long this time but I've finally made it. Thanks for the reviews. Still appreciated very much!

**

* * *

Chapter 9 – Confessions**

The whole thing was getting better and better every day. It was turning out more interesting, more confusing and more stressing with each minute passing and Tea sighed heavily after her dancing course. She gave lessons after finishing her own dancing training about three years ago. She could have gone to New York or even Europe, dancing in Broadway Shows and Musicals but she had decided against because it meant leaving Domino – leaving Yugi.

Maybe finally she could believe in her own choice and had done the right thing. Tea couldn't get Kaiba's words out of her head. '_He loves you_.' How the hell would _he_ know? Was it that obvious for him to see? Love was indeed making blind. Tea was in love with Yugi. Maybe Yugi was in love with Tea. Serenity was in love with Kaiba. And Kaiba, the big riddle, was perhaps even in love with Serenity. At least he was in love. He had said so. And Yugi called a guy who didn't know love exists. How ironic. But even Tea had thought so lately. Now she wasn't so sure anymore.

The young woman with the big blue eyes passed by the Game Shop and stopped at the opposite side of the street. Her mind made a short summary. Rebecca was with Mokuba. Kaiba said Yugi loved Tea. Tea and Kaiba had come to an agreement, plus she wasn't afraid of unwanted pregnancy anymore. The chapter Kaiba was over, finally. She hoped for Serenity that everything would turn out good in the end. Last but not least that left Yugi, being single and maybe in love with Tea. Taking a deep breath the brown-haired crossed the street and entered the Game Shop.

Yugi sighed sitting behind the counter with his head supported by his hand. His elbow was propped on the counter and he was desperately trying to read a magazine. But the letters seemed to spin and the pictures were blurry. Every other minute he would sigh and ask himself what he had done wrong. Until the shop's door went to be opened and Tea stepped inside. Yugi blinked in order to see if his mind was playing tricks on him but it was no hallucination, she was real.

"Hello Yugi."

Yugi almost fell off his chair gazing at Tea. She was looking even more beautiful than ever. Her big clear blue eyes held a sadness that made them sparkle in the artificial lights of the room. How stupid had he been in the past not to see what was right in front of his eyes? The woman was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. Her skin was tanned, her brown locks full and silky, her long legs within that short black skirt made Yugi swallow and if she smiled… _if_ she did. She didn't at the moment.

"Hi Tea. I was hoping we can talk. I've to apologize to you." With a gesture of his hand Yugi motioned for the woman to go inside of his actual home behind the shop.

Seeing that Tea nodded and obeyed Yugi quickly ran to close the shop. There were far more important things than the Game Shop. So he walked inside of his living room where he found Tea sitting on the sofa.

"Tea, what I've done was wrong and I'm deeply sorry about that. I'm sorry that it seemed that I didn't care about you and Kaiba. That was just because…"

The woman gazed at the young man in expectation. Would she finally hear what she needed to hear?

"It was because I was jealous." Yugi sank his head. "I was scared you might be in love with Kaiba. And I was disappointed that you've got fooled by one as him. My low self-confidence made me think that you would like to be with someone… someone great as Yami."

"Yami?" Tea never knew Yugi had been oblivious to her feelings for Yami.

"Yes, I know you liked him. More than a friend." Yugi had to draw in another deep breath.

"But it was stupid, really. The crush I had on Yami was never something real. You are real, Yugi." Tea gave a trusting smile and the guy even returned the gesture before he finally sat down.

"But I gave up hope long ago and then there was suddenly Kaiba and you…" The small man drifted off.

"But Kaiba and I had never existed." With a helpless sigh Tea stood up and gazed out of the window from where she could see the huge building of Kaiba Corporation. "Yes, we've spent a night together. But this was between two different people, strangers, neither of us had been themselves. And everything concerning that certain night I'd rather like to forget, honestly."

"I know but I should have known that long ago. Not just yet. I've been a bad friend for you and acted selfishly. How much wrong I could I've been thinking I did the right thing." Yugi made his way over to Tea and looked into her blue eyes. "But I've realized something and for once in my life I want to do the right thing, Tea."

Coming close to the woman Yugi's violet eyes seemed to hypnotize her when he lifted his hand slowly to put in on Tea's cheek ever so softly. He smiled at her before he touched her lips with his'. In a slow and tender way the guy tried to express the love he felt inside and Tea suddenly felt butterflies running through her whole body. It felt like home to her.

"What was that?" The woman whispered slowly opening her eyes.

"A kiss." Yugi timidly chuckled but turned serious again. "I know it's late but I've realized that all I want is to be with you, Tea. I've wasted enough years thinking I wasn't worth you and if it should still be the truth then you better tell me, now."

Tea slowly shook her head. "No, it's not too late. I'd have waited even longer but I'm glad you found out." She smiled and wrapped her arms around his slim waist. "I'm deeply in love with you and I'm glad it's you, not Yami or Kaiba. Not many people can call themselves happy to be in love with their best friend."

Their smiles could have been described as stupid or childish, but they were just happy. They kissed once more, overjoyed to have finally found their true loves in themselves. It was a scene of exchanging smiles, kisses, smiles and yet again kisses before they finally parted.

"Yugi?" The blue-eyed woman waited for her friend's attention before she continued. "What happened to you and Rebecca?"

"Rebecca?" Yugi shrugged. "I don't know. We've never been together but I realized she wanted to be with me. I told her there's no way. And I guess she's quite sad even though we're okay. It's hard to explain but I hope we can still be friends."

"I guess that won't be a problem." Tae said in a dull tone. "She's with Mokuba, did you know that?"

Yugi shook his head. "No… but… that went quick. What about Serenity? I thought she was with him."

"Past. Serenity told me yesterday. Poor girl found them snogging in the Kaiba mansion. But she's not as sad as you should think." Tea suddenly grinned and shrugged.

"I don't get that." Yugi scratched his head quite funnily.

"Let's just say that she hopes that Kaiba indeed knows that love exists."

* * *

Serenity nervously lifted her finger to press the button of the door bell, standing in front of the Kaiba mansion. Not only she was nervous because of the task she had in her mind but also that she might have to face Mokuba. She rang the bell nonetheless, waiting for someone to open up.

"Yes?" One of the maids opened to Serenity's luck and raised an eyebrow at the familiar face. "Oh, good afternoon, Ms. Wheeler."

To Serenity's surprise the maid turned to talk to no one else but her master. "Mr. Kaiba, there's Ms. Wheeler."

Unknown by Serenity a nod was given to the maid and she was led inside the house. Seto Kaiba himself was standing in front of her as if he had expected her but his look was like usual, unreadable for the woman.

"Mokuba's not at home." Kaiba told her wondering that she was here at all. He couldn't imagine another reason for her visit even if she wasn't with his brother anymore.

"I'm here to talk to you, actually. I'd be glad if you've got a minute for me." Her hazel eyes took in his stare.

Kaiba was confused but he wouldn't show it. He stared at her for a while before he nodded. "Let's go upstairs into my office. There we can talk undisturbed."

Turning around Kaiba walked up the stairs down the corridor leading to his office. Serenity followed him silently, no words left her mouth. She expected Mokuba at any corner, not needing to face him at the moment. What would she say if he asked her what she was doing there? She couldn't possibly answer that she was here to talk to Seto because she hoped he would have feelings for her. That was ridiculous.

Entering Seto's office the woman closed the door behind her and gazed at the carpet for a moment until she looked at the man who had taken a seat on an arm chair. She did as well, but she chose the sofa as an adequate place. His gaze showed no sign of emotion, not even a question, nothing.

"You wanted to talk." He repeated the obvious she had told him minutes ago.

"Yeah, I did. I just don't know how to start this." She smiled timidly. Meeting his blue-eyed stare didn't make it easier on her, so she tried to avoid it. "First of all I need to mention that I know about you and Tea."

Kaiba replied this with a snort. A remark was formed in his brain but he didn't come as far as to express it verbally.

"She hasn't told me. It was Mai" This time the woman didn't come any further.

"That's just great!" Seto remarked sarcastically. "Why doesn't Tea just inform the press and gives an interview?"

"She only told Mai and Mai wouldn't have told me if I…" Serenity was slightly panicking but tried to calm down. "I hadn't told her about our kiss."

Finally Kaiba realized where this was going to lead and closed his eyes, seeking for necessary calmness and strength. He had no clue so far how to react. Not after his brother had split up with the woman ahead.

"So you told her. Well?" His voice not giving away his own mental struggle Seto sent an unimpressed glance. "Tell me why you did that."

"I've been confused about the kiss. About you, actually." Blushing slightly she gazed down at her hands. "That's why I told Mai. I guess she was afraid I might get fooled by you. That's why she told me about you and Tea."

"There is no me and Tea." Stubbornly the man stated with narrowed eyes.

"I know. I've spoken to Tea and she told me the same." Serenity blatantly babbled but hit finally a nerve when Kaiba – usually not a friend of emotions – dramatically rolled his eyes and groaned.

"What the hell are you doing at all? Is this any of your business? I don't think so." Glaring at the woman he stood up and towered to his full height.

Panic overcame the small young woman again and with wide eyes she stared at the man in front of her, standing up as well. "But I've got feelings for you! So just tell me once more it's none of my business and I will get lost."

Kaiba crossed his arms instead. The info slowly sank in. She believed she had feelings for him. He was skeptic after all. Could one kiss be enough to make her have feelings for him? Serenity took in that the man didn't reply at all. This was good. He could have told her to get lost but he didn't. The woman slowly sat down again.

"I know how this must sound to you. I can hardly believe it myself but after we kissed I was so confused… There was suddenly you in my mind all the time and I honestly don't know what I'd have done if I still was with your brother. I can't deny, nor change it, though that this kiss has made me feel things I've never felt before in my life." Serenity knew she was walking on thin ice telling Kaiba how she truly felt. He could break her heart with one sentence if he wanted to and knowing Seto Kaiba, there was always the possibility of some world shattering comment.

Instead Kaiba sat down as well. He stared at the woman before he tore his gaze away and narrowed his eyes. Wasn't that what he wanted to hear? He wasn't even sure, hadn't even thought about it. He was aware of his own feelings but he didn't know what he wanted at all.

"Why did you have to talk to Tea at all? You could have talked to me instead." His eyes didn't look at the auburn-haired this time but stared ahead.

"That's what I'm doing right now. The reason I was talking to Tea is because I wanted to be sure she has no feelings towards you." Serenity kept her voice low not to risk to sounding too desperate.

"She hasn't." Seto stated. "Nor have I feelings towards her. I suppose she told you how this mess could happen at all, not that it should be any of your business."

"Yes, she did tell me. But actually, what I need to know is…" Serenity took a deep breath. It was now or never. "What I need to know is if our kiss meant anything to you?" She stared at the blue-eyed man who hid his eyes beneath strands of his chestnut hair. "That night with Tea obviously hasn't meant anything to you. Fine. But I need to know if it was just the same with our kiss. Has it meant anything to you?"

"Yes, it has." Kaiba said low and kept staring ahead, avoiding to gaze into her beautiful hazel eyes. Instead he crossed his arms again.

Serenity smiled. But there was way to go and another frown build on her forehead. "I told you that I have feelings for you and I'm even pretty much convinced that I've fallen for you. I'm going to ask you straight away now, okay? Do you have feelings for me as well?"

Silence until his azure eyes finally met hers. "Yes, I have."

The woman's heart was pounding in her chest. Her hands were so cold but her face felt like fire. "When? Just with the kiss?"

"Battle City." This was getting too emotional for Kaiba and he needed to stand up. He certainly wasn't as calm as it was looking like. Through his veins were rushing a million ants right now. "Not just with a kiss. The kiss shouldn't have happened at all."

The woman was now staring at Kaiba. She had no clue if she had heard right. Was Kaiba telling her that he liked her even since Battle City? That had been over six years ago. That meant he had hidden his feelings inside even during the time she had been with his brother. No wonder that his moods changed so often towards her.

"But I'm glad about the kiss!" She was exclaiming now desperately and stood up holding her hands to her chest. "I would have never realized how much you mean to me! And you probably would have never told me what you feel. Aren't you glad about it?"

Kaiba closed his eyes for a moment tightly before he opened them again, gazing at Serenity. She was almost looking like in those days back in Battle City. Her hair was still long and girlish and her begging eyes expressed all her idealism.

"Aren't _you_ forgetting about Mokuba? When did you decide not to be in love with him anymore? Or is this some kind of revenge? Vengeance for his cheat of you." His blue eyes had narrowed again as he was staring at Serenity.

"I haven't decided anything, Kaiba. Not even to kiss you. What I've told you is the truth and I can't change it. I know it might be hard because of Mokuba. I wished you wouldn't be his brother. But you are and we've to make the best out of it. I think at last there are only two options. Whether there won't be a 'we' at all or we give it a try." Serenity knew she should calm down but she couldn't help it. How should she make him see that her feelings for him were true?

The tall man just stared at the small woman. Usually he could make quick decisions but this one was hard to make. Giving up was never something he liked. If he decided that there won't be a future for him and her, it would be the easiest. Maybe. He had his doubts. If they gave it a try it may be difficult with Mokuba and who was to know if it would last?

"What do you want, Seto?" Two big hazel eyes sought for his sapphire blue ones. Then Serenity sighed when tears stung behind her eyes. "Maybe I should leave you. So you can think about it all by yourself." Hanging her head she gave an almost unseen nod to reassure herself and turned to leave.

Kaiba blinked suddenly and his eyes went wide open. Without any thought at all his hand reached out to grab the woman's arm and spin her back around to face him. Serenity wasn't prepared for this and gasped caught by surprise when she suddenly was face to face with Seto. He held her with both of his hands at her arms while his own heart was hammering inside of his chest but he couldn't care less at the moment. Any doubting thought had left his mind when he was leaning down to kiss Serenity.

Seto wanted to be with her. There was no doubt except of those which concerned his hidden fears. But leaving all outer influences unseen he just wanted to wrap his arms around her body and hold her tight to his own and never let go. When she wrapped her slim arms around his neck to reply his kiss he couldn't help the flattering feeling of being in love with her. But he needed to come up for breath some time and the moment he did and Serenity opened her eyes he was able to see that she was indeed truly in love with him.

"Don't…" The woman whispered not wanting to stop their kiss.

The tall brown haired didn't hesitate, nor question her request, while she was pushing him to sit on the sofa. Climbing onto his lap she smiled when he pulled her close and kissed her neck.

"You know I've been about fifteen when I was dreaming about being so close to you." She whispered close to his ear while he planted a soft kiss on her key bone.

"Guess we both have kept some secrets." Seto murmured against her skin but she pulled away slightly and gazed into his clear blue eyes.

"You want to know how my dream ends?" Serenity asked with a small grin while she was undoing the top button of Seto's shirt.

"How?" His trademark smirk appeared while his eyes wandered across the woman's body on purpose.

"I'm going to show you." With that she shrugged off her sweat jacket before she put her parted lips onto his.

* * *

"Yugi…" Tea giggled when her new boyfriend kissed her once more in front of all people. The small grown guy had suggested going somewhere nice on their first date as a couple but as there was no good idea from either Tea or Yugi they decided to go to Rainmen's once more. None of their friends were there so far and Yugi used this opportunity obviously to get close to Tea even in public.

"What?" He grinned at her and raised his eyebrows funnily.

"They're watching." The brown haired laughed.

"Who?"

"Everyone!"

"So?" Yugi shrugged. "Who cares?"

The woman shrugged as well and grabbed the champion by his jacket, pulling him close. And so they joined their mouths for yet another kiss, wrapping their arms around each other. The guy let his hands run through Tea's soft brown hair while she let her hand run up his chest. Being in public made them have limits which was good after all. They should take each step at a time.

"Tell me I'm not dreaming!"

The familiar voice of one of their friends caught in their ears and the couple came up for breath. Their both gazes met the sight of the surprised looking face of Joey. Next to him Mai was smirking.

"You're not, Joey." Mai told her boyfriend with a grin.

"Finally, it was about time they got together, right Mai?" Joey laughed and clapped Mai's butt playfully what resulted in Mai slapping Joey's blond-haired head not so very playful.

Yugi and Tea instead grinned at each other and laughed. There was no need to envy Mai and Joey anymore. Finally they were together and hopefully forever.

"What have we missed out?" Mai asked joining their friends with Joey.

"Not much." Yugi told them and grinned.

"Not much." Tea agreed laughing. "Apart from Kaiba talking to me by free will and Yugi's try to kill him. Not worth talking about." She added with a wink of her hand.

"You tried to kill Kaiba? What the hell stopped you?" Joey asked the smaller guy who wasn't sure if it had been a joke after all.

"I haven't tried to kill him." Yugi shrugged off the topic. "I just told him to leave his fingers off my girlfriend."

"You should have killed him." The blonde guy said casually without the hint of a joke.

* * *

Kaiba smelled at the silky strands of hair of his lover and tightened his embrace around her. The two of them were lying on the sofa in content silence. The blanket wrapped them in its warmth and made them feel in complete comfort.

"How are we supposed to go on from here?" Serenity said softly stroking across the tiny hairs on her lover's arm. She loved the feel of them standing up in response to her touch.

A sigh escaped the man lying behind her with his arms wrapped around her. "I guess I should talk to Mokuba." Taking a deep breath Seto made to stand up, leaving the content warmth of her body next to him.

"Now?" The woman asked and wrapped the blanket around her body, already feeling the cool hitting her skin.

"What better time than now?" He replied and started to get dressed.

"Shouldn't I come along?" She asked and moved to sit gazing at the tall dark haired man who shook his head.

"No, let me do this alone." He said and grabbed his cell phone, speed dialing Mokuba's number.

"_Yes_?" The voice at the other end of the line held a bit of surprise and confusion as well as annoyance.

"Where are you?" Seto asked without hesitation while Serenity was starting to get dressed properly as well.

"_At Rebecca's. Why?" _

"I need to talk to you. It won't take long. I'll be there in fifteen minutes." Typical Kaiba he shut down his cell phone and left the younger brother in wonderment.

Mokuba had no clue what Seto could want, why he wanted to come to Rebecca's place, why so quickly and why at all the older brother wouldn't give him order to come home instead. But all this stayed unknown to the younger Kaiba who gave a puzzled look at his blond girlfriend. With raised eyebrows he just shrugged.

Meanwhile Seto was ready to leave the house. Followed by Serenity he grabbed the car keys and headed to the door where he suddenly stopped and turned to face the small woman behind. Lifting her chin he kissed the surprised looking woman.

"I'm going to drop you off at your place." He said before he finally left the mansion with the woman.

Serenity hoped that the Kaiba brothers would be okay after their talk. Knowing Seto he wasn't the best when it came to talks like that but on the other hand he knew his brother the best and so far they had made many years together without killing each other. Anyway, there hadn't been a woman between them she guessed. Nervously biting at one of her finger nails she watched out of the car's window until it finally stopped and she gazed at the man next to her.

"I'm going to call you when it's over." Seto stated with no visible emotion but Serenity could tell that in his mind he wasn't even with her anymore.

"Okay." She just said and climbed out of the car. "Good luck."

Without another word Kaiba drove off, destination Rebecca Hawkins' place. Actually he had no clue what to tell Mokuba but going for the option of being honest was always best he just guessed. Of course there were some risks too but if Seto would think about them right now, he might just turn around and run away. Still, stubbornness forbad the CEO to be a coward who runs away. He had never done that and if he would have to make a choice between his brother and his girlfriend there was only one and only family he had ever had and always would be.

Stopping the car in front of the small house Kaiba made his way on the front porch to ring the bell. He didn't have to wait long until Mokuba opened and went outside.

"You wanted to talk." The raven haired guy said with a shrug of his shoulders. "Talk."

Seto fixed his blue eyes on those of his brother and drew in a breath. "I'd like to apologize to you. I've been unfair to you when I called you all those names. Anyway, I realize I'm wrong and I'm asking you to accept my apology." A good start so far, Seto thought.

Mokuba stood astonished for a moment with his eyebrows suspiciously raised. Seto had never apologized before and it was more than just a surprise that he was doing now. But with a nod the younger brother accepted the offered apology.

"I'm not proud of how I broke up with Serenity, you know? I even see I've disappointed you, maybe. But all in all I'm not okay with the names you called me. So, okay, I accept your apology." It was an act of vengeance that Mokuba tried to sound as arrogant as his older brother when he crossed his arms quite childishly.

"Great. Now I should tell you the reason for me being angry when you hurt Serenity." Seto took in the sight of Mokuba's newly raised eyebrows. "I have feelings for her."

Mokuba's jaw dropped literally. "You have what?"

"I have feelings for her." Kaiba repeated his last sentence blatantly and stared at his younger brother.

"When did _that_ happen?" The pitch of sarcasm in his voice wasn't hidden.

"Battle City." The older one replied and crossed his arms as if pouting. Why was everyone asking about when he had fallen in love with her? It was as if they were expecting him to have made a decision about loving someone.

"That long?" Mokuba couldn't help asking like a schoolboy. With his eyes wide he stared in disbelief at his older brother who gave a curt nod in response. "And why didn't you just tell me before? You could have told me long ago."

"And when would that have been? During Battle City I wasn't in the mood talking about a stupid crush on a stupid girl. Later I haven't seen her anymore which I preferred by the way. Then you came with her as your new girlfriend. What do you think you'd have done if I told you?" The brown-haired gazed down at the ground while his brother just shrugged.

"I guess I'd have thought you were insane." The raven-haired replied with an almost shy grin. "But if you'd asked me to break up with her I would have done."

Kaiba smirked. "Probably but that's the last thing I wanted you to do. That's why I didn't tell you."

"It doesn't really matter anymore, does it? I'm not with her anymore." Mokuba sat down on the staircase of the veranda and looked up at his big brother. "It's just hard to believe that you really care about a woman, Seto." Carefully he grinned.

"That's not everything yet."

"Not?" Mokuba actually had not the slightest clue what could there be possibly even more.

"Serenity cares about me as well." Narrowing his eyes Kaiba found this part the most difficult to tell. "She just told me. You know I'm not naïve and I thought she was gone completely insane but…" A sigh escaped the older brother when he sat down next to Mokuba. "I believe her."

Silence swept over them for a while before Mokuba finally felt the urge to say something. "That's some news but well, it's not to me to decide whether she's truly in love with you or not. Do you want to be with her?"

Seto nodded slowly. "I might give it a try."

"I don't mind." The raven-haired suddenly smiled. "I'm skeptic because it's kind of quick but if you both feel that way I might as well wish you good luck."

Seto's blue eyes stared at his brother in wonderment for a few seconds. "Thank you Mokuba."

The rareness of his brother's words made the younger Kaiba smile. "Welcome."

"It might become difficult though. Serenity's your ex-girlfriend and" The brown-haired didn't come any further when his brother suddenly cut in.

"We'll see what happens." Mokuba grinned. He couldn't help feeling even happy if his brother was indeed in love for the first time in his life – as far as Mokuba knew.

Seto's hand suddenly reached out to touch his brother's shoulder and squeezed it lightly before he made to stand up. "I've got to go. Perhaps we'll see each other later."

Mokuba nodded. "Yeah, bye big brother." He smiled when Seto turned to look at him.

Kaiba hid his smile as he went back to the car and climbed inside. The first step was taken.

* * *

"Jeez, will they ever stop?" Joey said when he joined Mai standing at the pool table.

His gaze had fastened on the picture of Yugi and Tea who were sitting at the table, holding hands and kissing each other every now and then. They were so obviously in love that the blond guy had to roll his eyes at the sight of the two lovebirds making out. Of course he was happy for them but he was already missing his mate Yugi who was now busy with Tea. But Joey had Mai, hadn't he? He didn't know what he would do without her.

"I think they're sweet." Mai said and couldn't even help it but watching them with a blissful smile playing on her pink lips.

It was sweet to see her both friends finally being in love and openly showing. It had been a long time since Mai had been sitting there with Joey just like they were now. Years had passed and she couldn't imagine a life without the ever bugging blond man at her side. Her hand suddenly sought out for his to touch and she sent a smile to the love of her life.

"We have been like this once. Do you remember?" The woman asked drowning in nostalgia.

"Oh yeah." Joey suddenly grinned and tightened his grip on Mai's hand. "We have been even worse." He laughed and was happy when his long-term girlfriend joined in.

There weren't many moments like this in both their lives. Routine made them stop behaving like lovesick teenagers but instead sharing their whole lives with each other. The façade was showing two friends – they indeed were. Everyone could see how they were rolling their eyes at one another or making silly comments and even sometimes how they were having a row. But in fact just Mai and Joey alone knew the truth. That neither of them was able to get some sleep without the other one next to them. That neither of them was able to organize their lives without the other. That they were making each other complete.

Joey's brown eyes wandered to the form of his girlfriend. They could have been married but weren't. Why was that actually? Joey had always wanted to grow a family, even if just a small one because he wasn't rich. About Mai he wasn't so sure after all. Maybe that was the reason he had never asked her to become his wife. He had been a coward.

"Mai." The blond took both of his girlfriend's hands in his making the woman raise her brows in surprise. With Joey you never knew what would happen next.

"I have been thinking lately and actually we are sharing our lives, right?" Wide-eyed the woman nodded and Joey continued. Mai wasn't sure if a thinking Joey was good concerning them sharing anything at all. What the hell was he on about!

"And I can't imagine my life without you being part in it anymore. It made me realize that I have a request concerning the rest of our both lives." The young man loved the way Mai's violet eyes were gazing at him right now and the soft shade of pink rising on her cheeks. "I know it's a bad time and an even worse place and I don't even have a ring but…"

With that the blonde man sank down on one knee and looked up at his girlfriend holding her hands in his. Mai gasped at the shock realizing what Joey was about to do. She had often thought about why he hadn't done that so far but being the emancipated woman she was Mai had actually no problem living without marriage. But now that she was seeing the love of her life doing what she would have expected the least, she was overwhelmed by her feelings.

"Mai, will you become my wife?" With a typical Joey-grin he added: "Finally."

The woman grabbed her boyfriend by the collar of his blue shirt and pulled him up before she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. Yugi and Tea were looking at the two of them by now with puzzled faces.

"Yes!" The blonde shrieked happily when she had finally let go of her boyfriend. "I thought you'd never ask!"

Joey grinned stupidly and nearly blushed. "Better late than never. Look at us, Mai, we're the perfect couple! We have to marry each other! To be an example of how it should be!" Being Joey Wheeler he couldn't help but making a joke.

"I love you too, Wheeler." With a smirk Mai planted another kiss on the blond guy's lips to silence him. "Now let's celebrate this wonderful day a bit. What do you think?"

Mai turned to Yugi and Tea who had finally realized what was happening between their friends. They told them their congratulations and hugged each one of them, both being happy for their friends. Joey ordered drinks for every one of them and promised never to bet with money when playing pool ever again. Later even Tristan and his girlfriend joined them, being happily surprised about the news.

Joey sighed. "I'm so happy to celebrate this with all of you – a pity Serenity isn't here." He was oblivious to the loss of her last boyfriend but had no clue about the new man in her life.

Mai rolled her eyes. "Why don't you just call her?"

The blond guy laughed nervously. "Yeah, I could do that." Picking up his cell phone he dialed her number and waited for her to get the call.

* * *

"Hello?" Serenity's heart beat fast when she picked up the phone because it could finally be Seto telling her how it went with Mokuba.

"_It's Joey! Why don't you come over to Rainmen's? There's something we have to celebrate! You never guess what I've done, Seren!_"

"No, tell me. What did you do, Joey?" Serenity had no idea what her brother was on about but it was always funny listening to him.

"_I've just asked Mai to become my wife!_" He proudly exclaimed. "_Will you come and join us?_"

"Really?" The woman could hardly believe it but was happy with her big brother. "Course I'd love to come…" Serenity got silenced by the doorbell ringing. "Listen Joey, I'll see you later. There's someone at the door."

"_Okay, see you then. Bye._"

With shutting down her cell phone Serenity opened the door and was surprised to find Kaiba standing outside.

"Seto, I thought you'd call me…" Stupid but honest she exclaimed low.

"I've tried but your phone was busy. So I've come here. Is that a problem?" Stepping inside the tall man looked around in order to see if her brother was somewhere near.

"No. No problem at all. Joey's not here if you're watching out for him." She shrugged and turned serious. "How was it going with Mokuba?"

"Better than I'd have thought." Seto said casually watching the pictures at the wall. "He's okay with us. Quite skeptic but okay in the end." He shrugged and turned to see the happy face of Serenity who immediately ran to hug her boyfriend.

"But that's great news! I'm so glad!" She had a huge smiled plastered on her face when she gazed into Seto's blue eyes before she kissed him. "Was it really that easy?"

"Mh… no problem at all." Kaiba as usual overdid just a bit but that was just his nature. "When are we going to tell your brother?" He couldn't help his smirk thinking of Wheeler's reaction to his precious sister being now Seto's girlfriend.

"That's exactly why I need to tell you something." The woman put a careful smile on her face. "We are going to see him and Mai later in Rainmen's."

"Are we?" Seto raised his eyebrows.

"Yes, actually now. He's just called me and you know what he's done? He's just proposed to Mai and they are celebrating a bit. Joey wants me to join them." Her smile faded seeing Kaiba's expression.

"Oh great – I hate parties." Dripping off sarcasm he gazed at Serenity.

"It's the perfect opportunity to officially present you as my boyfriend." The hazel-eyed woman laughed when she saw the smirk on his face appearing again. "So, are you coming along or what?"

Kaiba just grabbed the woman's hand and pulled her along to leave the apartment.

* * *

The moment Serenity entered the club with Seto Kaiba in tow Mai were the first one to see them and her violet eyes widened. She couldn't decide whether to prepare Joey for the worst or just to run away herself. So she just sat there and waited for them to approach. Her fingers mindlessly began to pad the table and she was smiling nervously when Tea raised a suspicious eyebrow at the blonde. The brown-haired realized what was coming.

"Hi Joey!" Serenity exclaimed happily and immediately her brother turned with a big smile on his face seeing her.

Jumping from his chair he hugged his sister when she congratulated the newly made fiancée of Mai. But pretty much sooner than later the blond man narrowed his eyes recognizing Kaiba. Letting go of his sister he just glared at him which was replied by the tall dark-haired man. Yugi rolled his eyes at the sight and Tea shrugged helplessly. They would never get along with each other they supposed.

Serenity didn't care to tell them anything right now and hugged Mai instead. As the female of the day she received congrats from the younger woman as well before Serenity finally turned to look at her brother who was still glaring with his brown eyes. As if Joey was noticing the stare of his younger sister he turned and his look softened, slightly.

"What is _he_ doing here?" He almost pulled a face and raised a brow, pointing with his index finger just slightly at the tall man behind as if he were an alien.

"Seto's with me." Serenity stated carefully but realized her choice of words wasn't clear enough.

Joey wondered why the hell his sister brought Kaiba with her. Had they become friends while she had been together with Mokuba? Joey's brown eyes wandered over Kaiba trying to find anything indicating a change of friendship in the icy blue eyes of the tall man. He couldn't find any. Kaiba was staring down at him like usual, just arrogantly.

"So, finally you're going to marry, Wheeler." Kaiba crossed his arms and towered in front of Joey. "That must be the first thing you're doing right in your life. About time I must say. Your wild life wouldn't have been good influence on my girlfriend." The traditional smirk appeared on his features.

Joey just stared at the tall blue-eyed with a puzzled expression. He had almost been happy enough to finally comment Kaiba with his patented sentence 'mind your own business' when his mind took over riddling about that girlfriend-thing. Adding one and one Joey still had no idea what Kaiba wanted from him and why he should be a bad influence on moneybag's girlfriend. The only way that could happen…

Like lightning the brown-eyed turned to face his sister who was smiling sweetly before she passed him by to join Seto's side. "He doesn't mean that with the bad influence, Joey. Seto's actually happy for the both of you as well."

Finally Seto's glare faltered and switched to his girlfriend with actually no result as she was ignoring it simply. Joey on the other hand sent an SOS gaze at Mai who shrugged at him but stood up and taking his hand.

"So, are you together?" Mai asked the unavoidable question nagging in Joey's mind but trying purposely to miss out on.

"Yeah." Serenity answered for the both of them.

"What about Mokuba? He just left you, Seren!" Joey suddenly cut in trying to find excuses. "You don't need to do an act of vengeance against him with good old Kaiba. You don't need to look for another boyfriend that quickly. You don't need to be with someone at all."

"Why is everyone thinking I'm doing an act of vengeance?" Serenity nearly whined when she slowly fell into a fit of slight rage. "I fell in love with Seto before Mokuba left me, okay? And Seto fell in love with me even before! So guys, you got any problem with that? No? Fine!" Stomping with her foot she passed Joey by and sat down at the table where Yugi, Tea and Tristan were sitting.

Tea couldn't help her grin and gave the younger woman secretly the thumbs up. Seto couldn't help but feel as uncomfortable as Joey was looking. Stuffing his hands in his pockets he shrugged unlike him at the blond guy. It wasn't in his interest that Serenity was telling her brother so many details about the when of them falling in love but however, actually it was the truth, wasn't it?

Joey came to his senses when Mai squeezed his hand softly. "Well, can't do much 'bout it, can I?" The blond man shrugged as well while his girlfriend was shrugged this time.

"If that's not my brother!" A familiar voice belonging to a certain nineteen-year-old beamed from behind. "Are you having a party without me, guys? That's pretty much unfair of you!" The cheeky grin was upon his face when he gazed from Seto to Joey and back. "Gladly I'm here now. The moods seem to be miserable…"

Joey's eyes suddenly fastened on Mokuba with a glare. "You!" He hissed and Mokuba's blue-gray eyes obviously widened in shock. "Actually I wanted to punch your face till you're looking like an apple pie but…" The blond suddenly grinned. "Seeing that obviously it doesn't really matter to my sister with which one of the Kaiba brothers she's going out I'm going to make an exception."

With a snort Kaiba shook his head and joined his sister. That Wheeler was some sick joke freak, he was sure about it.

Mokuba instead smiled innocently. "That was the whole plan. Serenity and I were just together to get her closer to my big brother, you know?" The raven-haired laid an arm around the blond guy's shoulders.

Joey just smiled wryly. "Doesn't make any difference really."

"What's there to celebrate actually?" Mokuba asked ignoring the discussion they had been in second ago. Rebecca Hawkins stood next to Mokuba and silently took his hand.

"Joey and I are going to get married!" Mai exclaimed happily lightening the moods.

"Shit! I mean, congratulations!" The young Kaiba grinned and wrapped an arm around his girlfriend's waist. "From both of us! Right, Becka?" The girl nodded reassuring him.

Seto couldn't help but look at Serenity in expectation how she might react to the picture of his brother with Rebecca. Feeling his eyes upon her she turned and smiled at the brown-haired taking his hand in hers. She sighed blissfully and leant close to his ear.

"I love you."

**The end.**

(A/N: Finally. It had taken me quite a long time. Happy ends are not my strength. Anyway, there may be an epilogue soon in order to prepare for a sequel in another generation!)


	10. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

* * *

"SETO!"

Kaiba silently growled to himself hearing the nerving voice of his younger brother from downstairs. Lifting the little blue-eyed girl in his arms she smiled at him and pulled at his fly clapping her hands in surprise when he glared down at her.

"SETO! Damn it! We need to hurry! Rebecca is going to kill me! Come down now, will you!"

Again Mokuba's voice rang in his older brother's ears and sighing he headed with the kid on his arm from her room to the direction of his bedroom. Mokuba was nervous and had all rights to but they had plenty of time still. Entering his bedroom he found his wife standing in front of the big mirror at the wardrobe's doors. She had an unpleased expression on her beautiful features.

"Are you done? Mokuba's calling for me every other minute." The dark haired man said unimpressed.

"Look at me, Seto. I can't go like this." Serenity whined while her daughter responded this with carefree laughter again pulling at her father's fly.

"Why? It's okay." He replied wondering what his wife was on about. The red dress was fitting her perfectly; just like the day she had chosen it to wear on this special day.

"Okay, Seto? Look at me!" Again the whining started. "I'm fat." With big sad hazel eyes Serenity looked at her husband, than back in the mirror, sighing.

Kaiba looked at his daughter. "Your mum's insane." He shook his head when the kid gazed at him with big azure eyes and put her down to go to Serenity.

"Really, you are." Seto said when he pulled her close to wrap his arms around her waist. "But you are even more beautiful than insane." Leaning down he kissed her.

"Do you really think? Still?" She said almost pouting.

"Yes. You're growing even more beautiful with each day." He shrugged as if it was the most normal thing in the world and wondered why she couldn't see that. Then his gaze shifted to the little girl on their bed, playing meanwhile with her light blue dress. He couldn't help his groan and lifted a threatening finger. "Sari, don't! Your pigtails will undo themselves."

The young girl just laughed and fell on her butt. The mother sighed and picked her up while Seto was already waiting for his women in the doorway. But Serenity stopped and smiled suddenly taking in the sight of her husband.

"You haven't changed during the last years." She said shaking her head slightly.

"Apart from the gray hairs because of your daughter." Crossing his arms he replied.

But his wife just kept smiling and shook her head. "You have not a single gray hair, Seto. No, you're looking like at our wedding."

"That's just because it's the same suit." He shrugged and raised an eyebrow.

"SETO!" The voice from downstairs desperately rang through the mansion.

"I swear I'll kill him even before he's going to get married." Kaiba growled when Serenity passed him by with Sari on her arm.

Mokuba stood cross-armed in front of the door and padded his foot on the ground. His hands were fiddling with a small box where a shiny golden ring was in. His raven hair was tied into a neat ponytail and the dark suit with the blue vest fit him perfectly. Seeing his brother with family approach he padded his index finger on his wristwatch and glared at all of them.

Half an hour later they four of them found themselves in the big hotel's garden. While Mokuba was rushing off to the gent's for the hundredth time Serenity smiled seeing his brother wave at her. Joey and Mai were talking to Yugi when the Kaibas approached them. After the standard greetings Joey gazed at Kaiba with a stupid grin.

"So finally the last one of us is going to get married, huh?" Then the blond guy laughed. "Imagine Kaiba, it could have been your wife instead of Rebecca."

"But it is not, Wheeler." Kaiba replied with a smirk.

"Where's my sweet little niece?" Joey stretched out his hands for Sari but she hold on tight to her mother. "That's your influence, Kaiba."

"You bet." Another smirk was sent out to Seto's brother-in-law.

"Where are the twins?" Serenity asked Mai.

"Tea's somewhere around with them and little Yami." Scanning the area Mai pointed to the brown-haired women who was obviously having trouble coping with three kids at a time. "You should go and help her."

"I'm coming along. Sari will be happy seeing her cousins." Serenity smiled and accompanied the blonde.

Mai and Joey had been lucky to receive twins after they had gotten married five years ago. While their daughter Joanna was just like Joey with a big mouth and like her mother with the good looks her son Mikey was nothing like them. He was almost like his aunt Serenity, shy and quiet. Tea and Yugi instead had become parents little time later with a boy. The name Yami had been Yugi's idea but Tea agreed thinking of how much they both had to thank the pharaoh.

Mokuba arrived with wet palm minutes later joining the other men. He was nervous getting married finally to Rebecca. They had spent the last five years together and now they were ready to settle down and take life a bit slower. So he had asked her to become his wife. Hopefully she still wanted to and wouldn't leave him standing in front of the altar.

"Are you actually oblivious to that our kids are nearly the same age. Maybe they 're going to get married to each other one day." Joey said and laughed.

"My daughter won't get married to any kid of you." Kaiba stated while Yugi just gazed at his friends.

"I was talking about Joanna and Yami." Joey hissed. "Anyway, Yugi, you and Tea should try to get another kid. A girl for Mikey." A grin appeared on the blonde's face.

"We'll see." Yugi said uncertain of he wanted to have more kids at all.

"Or Mokuba and Rebecca have to get a sweet little girl for Mikey!" Joey grinned facing the groom.

"Huh?" The raven-haired man just gave a puzzled expression. He hadn't been part of the conversation mentally.

"Better think twice about it, Mokuba, if you want to have kids." Kaiba stated blatantly. "Bugging little brat they are…" He mumbled more to himself than to anyone else.

Unfortunately Joey heard though. "You only have one, Kaiba! I really wonder how my sister's coping with a moody bastard like you every day. Poor Sari."

A snort escaped the blue-eyed man and he was ready to shoot another comment when his wife arrived back with Mai and the kids.

"Are you ready, Mokuba? About time. Tea's gone to see after Rebecca." Serenity said.

"Huh?" Again the young man had been daydreaming.

"Seto, take your brother and go. Rebecca will be coming any moment." The auburn-haired told her husband who willingly obeyed as Mokuba's witness.

Mai was meanwhile pulling at Joey's sleeve to place him in the row with Joanna on his lap. The girl was babbling as usual and pulling at her twin brother's hair when Mai sat down next to her husband. The seat next to Mai was given to Serenity who had Sari on her lap. The fringe of her chestnut hair was falling into her face but she didn't attempt to push it away. Instead the little girl was glaring at the Wheeler twins. Mai groaned annoyed.

"Serenity, can we swap kids? Joanna won't keep quiet with Mikey around."

"Okay." Serenity said when she saw the mess her friend was in. Mikey was near crying. So she handed her daughter to Mai. "Go to aunt Mai, Sari and be a lovely girl."

Taking the boy on her lap Serenity smiled at him. His two big violet eyes gazed at her from under strands of ash blond hair. He would certainly be a very cute guy one day. Meanwhile Joanna had already calmed down with a glare at Sari who replied it with her icy blue eyes. Mai chuckled at how similar the girl was looking to her father. If she was a boy her aunt would have been scared. Her daughter was finally pleased when Yugi joined them next to Joey. He had Yami on his lap who was apart from the brown hair looking like his father. What would happen when even more kids were in their little group?

The ceremony began and Serenity was close to tears. Who would have thought that Mokuba and Rebecca made such a cute couple after all? By the way Seto was looking gorgeous next to his brother and Serenity had no regrets marrying the CEO four years ago. Mai sent a blissful smile to her friend seeing how emotional she had gotten. Mai and Joey had been the first ones to marry and when Serenity suddenly got pregnant almost the same time as Mai Kaiba pressured to get married. He was an old-fashioned guy after all.

Yugi and Tea got married short time after them and later Tea suddenly even was pregnant. They were lucky to become parents four months later than Serenity and Seto when the Wheeler's twins had been almost six months old. It had been all a big surprise in the end that from all the possibilities their kids were almost they same age. Now Mokuba was getting married to Rebecca who wasn't pregnant so far but knowing one Kaiba you know them both. Mai was sure sooner or later they would become parents as well.

After the ceremony that made all women cry and all men roll their eyes Mokuba and Rebecca officially exclaimed that the party should begin. Their first dance was looking like in a Cinderella story when Rebecca's bridal dress was sliding across the floor. And 'Prince' Mokuba was guiding her like he had done nothing else the last ten years. Only insiders such as Tea knew he had taken dancing lessons – the brown-haired had been his teacher. A very talented person she had thought but an annoying one as well.

"My little girl's finally married and going to become a mature woman." Her grandfather said with a sigh what made Kaiba smirk.

Serenity elbowed her husband before he would say something unnecessary. She smiled at Professor Hawkins and squeezed Seto's hand when he glared down at her.

"Mai, my beautiful wife. Would you give me that dance?" Joey said with a grin holding out his hand.

Making sure their kids were occupied under Tea's eyes she nodded with a smile. "I'd love to, Mr. Wheeler."

And Joey led his wife to their first dance after the past weddings they attended including their own. Serenity meanwhile wrapped an arm around her husband's waist and sighed. It had been their wedding when Seto had asked her for a dance, never before, never after. Maybe she couldn't change him but she knew he needed her as much as she needed him.

"Joey?" Mai suddenly said when they were dancing.

"Hm? What is it?"

"I've got to tell you something. You had always wanted to have a small family and we have a small family, right?"

Joey sensed his wife was nervous but he had no idea why. "Yeah, right. And I already have a small family with you, Joanna and Mikey. That makes me the happiest man alive. Why are you asking?"

The blonde bit on her bottom lip and sighed heavily. "Yes but what if I can't fulfill your request having a small family?"

"What are you talking about?" Now Joey was becoming serious. What was his wife on about? She wouldn't want to leave him, would she? They were happy. At least there was no sign telling him otherwise.

"I'm talking about another kid, Joey." Mai stopped dancing and gazed into two brown eyes. "A small family seemed adequate considering that we're not rich but I can't fulfill your request because I'm pregnant."

Joey's jaw literally dropped before he snapped out of his trance and took his wife in his arms, kissing her cheek. He tightened his embrace and kissed her lips before he finally gazed into her violet eyes.

"You are pregnant? That's great!" He had a huge smile plastered on his face. "These are such good news, Mai! I'd love to have another kid with you! But… when? How? I mean, I know how but… when?"

"Calm down, Joey. I'm just sixth week…"

"That must have been the night staying at Kaiba's after Serenity's birthday." The blond snickered and received a slap on his arm.

"You're disgusting, Wheeler. Anyway, I thought you'd freak if I told you."

"Yeah but positively."

"But we will have to move into a bigger apartment and that costs. And then we would need the whole money we've saved for college and…" Mai was worried about their finances.

Joey cut her off with a wink of his hand. "I can always look for another job and maybe a part time job too. And if that's not enough we go and kill Kaiba." He snickered at the thought of his sister becoming the richest widow of the world.

* * *

Yugi joined his wife with the kids and gazed down at the rambling group of youngsters. Joanna and Sari were obviously fighting over some toy while Mikey just gazed with two big eyes from his sister to his cousin and back. Yami sat on the ground with a toy all for himself.

"That Joey's kids would fight with Kaiba's someday doesn't surprise me really but hell, they are related." Yugi chuckled and laid his arm around Tea who smiled.

"I'm glad we have such a lovely little boy. He's the smartest from all of them." She grinned. Of course she wouldn't say that in front of the other's kids parents.

"Yeah." Yugi agreed and wrapped from behind both of his arms around his wife's waist. "We should have more from that sort."

"You really think?" Tea said smiling when she laid her hands upon his whilst watching the kids.

"Yes, sure. I mean it." Yugi obviously was serious about it.

Tea just smiled at her husband and kissed his cheek. Her gaze shifted downwards to Yami. Yes, it would be nice having another lovely kid such as him. He had been their joy for the last three years and maybe it would be nice having a little daughter as well.

"Hey Yugi!" Joey came rushing to his friends with a smile and waved like a maniac. "Tea! I'm going to become father!"

"You already are… what's the surprise?" Tea said.

"No, again! Mai's pregnant again!" He babbled when Mai joined them and received a friendly hug from Tea.

"Not another one of that sort of your brats." The voice of Kaiba suddenly sounded from behind and Joey turned to glare at him.

But Serenity was quick enough to cut in. "I'm so happy for you, Joey!" She exclaimed and kissed her brother's cheek before she happily hugged Mai.

The men left the women who started chatting about the news when Yugi suddenly turned to Kaiba. "So Joey and Mai are having another baby and Tea and I think about having one more. What about you Kaiba? Are you and Serenity already done?"

"Definitely." He stated unimpressed- His look darted downwards to the girl in his arms. He had taken Sari with him because her mother was obviously occupied. "One is enough."

Kaiba couldn't help his smile when she gazed up to him with her big blue eyes. In his eyes she was the most beautiful from all of them and the smartest as well, of course. It would have been nice to have a little boy in order to make him the CEO of Kaiba Corporation one day but he could already see the necessary potential in Sari. That was enough. Anyway there could be more kids from Mokuba's side one day.

Sari leant back in her father's arms and laid her head on his chest yawning. The remaining men hadn't missed it and chuckled. That girl was certainly father's pride. Nowhere else she was so lovely than in his arms. At least until her uncle Mokuba arrived with his newly wedded wife. Immediately the little girl's head shot up and gazed at him who held his arms open for her to jump on his lap.

"Hey my little sweet niece." The raven-haired man said and tickled her, which resulted in Sari laughing. "Aren't you gorgeous looking today? A pity I'm married now…" He joked and received a glare from his brother and the bride as well. "Becka, we should hurry and have our own sweet little girl before my brother realized that she likes me more than him."

Rebecca's eyes widened. "Calm down, Mokuba. What's the hurry? Seto certainly won't kill you."

"You never know, Becka. He could do that." He grinned at her and ran a hand through Sari's brown hair. "However, one day you're going to have really cute nieces and nephews, Sari. I promise."

"She already has a cute niece and nephew and there's going to be more." Joey exclaimed but was ignored when Rebecca cut in.

"Nieces and nephews? How many kids do you want to have again?"

"I thought about four or five." Mokuba laughed seeing the shocked face of his wife. "No, I was thinking about one or maybe two. But now right now, Becka. Though we should already practice. There's nothing more important than a good practice if you want to be best."

Rebecca crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. "I bet your brother told you that."

"Mmh." Mokuba smiled and kissed his wife's cheek making the blonde immediately smile. "I love you."

"I love you too."

(A/N: Finally and I mean really finally the end. It's just a bit from the plans I have in mind. The roots so to say… ahem… whatever, I'm finally done. YEAY! Can't tell you how happy I am. Thanks for all the reviews! This story had been my first one longer than thirty pages and I'm kinda proud of it. The plot for the sequel isn't exact in my mind yet but I'll see… THX again, love it.)


End file.
